IIT

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IIT - Infantry Immersive Trainer


Overview

In the Infantry Immersive Trainer (IIT), Marines experience close-quarters battle in a realistic urban setting complete with sights, sounds and smells. Sets, special effects, role players, virtual reality and live training are combined in a 32,000-square-foot facility built inside a former tomato packing plant at the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force Battle Simulation Center, Camp Pendleton, California. The ethical questions, chaos and confusion of urban warfare are presented in real-time scenarios while Marines patrol with standard weapons, communications, and combat gear.

Date delivered: Pendleton facility completed December 2007; Reston facility, fall of 2008.

 

What GPS Created

GPS managed construction of set elements such as rooms and streets and was responsible for adding virtual components into the physical space. We integrated virtual experiences supplied by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) such as projected characters/avatars, as well as our own Joint Fires & Effects Trainer System[LINK] (JFETS UTM) software which allows Marines to call for fire in an urban terrain. A virtual window, binoculars and radio communication add to the realism. The IIT was created in collaboration with the Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT).

 

How it works

The scene is set outside the facility with almost 1,000 acres comprising a larger training area where Marines can land in helicopters or drive up in vehicles. While bullets are replaced by paintballs, and a combination of live actors and avatars play the part of insurgents and local inhabitants, this training is focused on saving lives, as warfighters gain the benefits of lessons learned in a safe environment before they face a real threat. Once they enter the IIT facility, they’re in the middle of a village, with both interior and exterior immersive environments.

IIT Marines interact with role players

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Marines from 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, must tend to a role-playing casualty as they clear a Middle Eastern village. (U.S. Navy photograph by John F. Williams - 2/19/2008)

 

IIT room with avatars

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Marines from 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, confront avatars, or virtual humans, while clearing a room (U.S. Navy photograph by John F. Williams - 2/19/2008)

 

IIT village exterior

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Marines from 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, make their way through a simulated Middle Eastern village (U.S. Navy photograph by John F. Williams - 2/19/2008)

 

IIT control room

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Sgt. William Jones, right, officer-in-charge of the Infantry Immersion Trainer (IIT) facility and Jonell Laxa, IIT Simulator Technician, monitor a virtual scenario from the control room. (U.S. Navy photograph by John F. Williams - 2/20/2008)


For more information on IIT, please contact us.

Impact

While Marines continue to train for battle using the IIT at Camp Pendleton, a second IIT has been created for a different purpose. At the Gruntworks human factors laboratory facility in Reston, VA, IIT is allowing Marines to test equipment in a combat-like environment.


Found on the Web:

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/01/holograms-train.html

http://www.nctimes.com/movie/marinetrain0108/viewer.html

http://www.onr.navy.mil/iit/infantry-immersion-trainer.asp

  • Full Spectrum Command

    FSC version 1.5 was created to allow trainees to experience tactical command and control of a US Army Light infantry Company. This interactive training tool lets commanders hone skills learned through traditional instruction on a virtual asymmetrical battlefield.

  • Full Spectrum Leader

    FSL was created to allow trainees to experience tactical command and control of a US Army Light Infantry Platoon in a Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT) environment. Another version was customized for the Singapore Armed Forces.

  • ELECT BiLAT

    As part of their deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, Army officers have become responsible for maintaining the peace while working together with locals. This tool was designed to help them gain skills for cross-cultural meetings and negotiations at the interpersonal level.

  • C3IT

    The Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT) needed to be able to demonstrate some of their technologies at conferences and other locations. C3IT was created as a portable immersive environment that would showcase speech recognition and natural language understanding.

  • IIT

    In the Infantry Immersive Trainer (IIT), Marines experience close-quarters battle in a realistic urban setting complete with sights, sounds and smells.

  • JFETS UTM

    In an urban environment, the challenges for Army forward observers include limiting collateral damage and noncombatant casualties as they call for artillery fire. The JFETS UTM lets forward observers gain the value of lessons learned in a challenging training system.

  • JFETS CASM

    The JFETS CASM is an immersive training environment enabling Joint Terminal Attack Controllers (JTACs) to practice calling in close air support and communicating with pilots using a custom cylindrical display with an unobstructed view of a realistic simulated sky.

  • CAD-TS

    Patriot Missile crews have traditionally been trained using radar simulations, whiteboards, field manuals and sand tables. Instructors have not had the tools necessary to teach the critical skill of visualizing the battle space in three dimensions.

  • FCS MDT

    The Boeing Company required a way to showcase capabilities of various Army Future Combat Systems (FCS) concepts. The FCS Mobile Demonstration Trailer has traveled across the country, giving visitors a hands-on, interactive experience including vehicle simulators.

  • ELECT UrbanSim

    High ranking Army officers in Iraq are now charged with maintaining stability, fighting insurgency and crime, and reconstructing infrastructure. ELECT UrbanSim lets commanders reap the benefits of lessons learned in a realistic way, without risk.