The U.S. Navy, as part of its training and mission rehearsal efforts, requires the ability to mimic realistic behaviors and physical phenomenon in 3-D training simulations. In working toward this goal, Navy officials have tapped some of the latest physics-based computer technologies, including that of Planet LLC of Madison, Wis.
The Naval Air Systems Command in Orlando, Fla., has issued a two-year, $600,000 contract to Planet LLC for the development of a software interface. The user interface will enable instructional systems designers and content creators to add physics-based behaviors to portable, Web-based 3-D training simulations. The contract is an extension of a previous agreement whereby Planet added force modifiers and equation-based behaviors into simulations created in 3ds max 3-D modeling software from Autodesk of San Rafael, Calif.
The project will also offer training and courseware development support to the members of the F-35 Lightening II courseware development team, including project partner American Systems Corp. The tools will be made available to the F-35 Lightening II maintenance courseware development team, led by Northrop Grumman Corp. under direction from Lockheed Martin Corp., and sold commercially in Planet’s Hypercosm software suite.
“This is a great opportunity for Hypercosm to expand its 3-D authoring tools so instructional system designers can create fully interactive 3-D maintenance training applications with little to no programming,” said project manager Ryan Burnett. “We really are offering content creators the ability to add realistic behaviors, such as torque, collision detection, heat transfer, fluid dynamics, and air flow for the first time without C++ programming or scripting.”
For more information, visit www.hypercosm.com.
