Abdel-Malek and Colleagues Receive $2.54 Million Competitive Award for Defense Research on Future Combat Systems
Iowa City, IA – November 17, 2003 – the College of Engineering at The University of Iowa announced today that college researchers have been awarded a contract in response to a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) from the US Army Tank Automotive Command Center (TACOM). The contract totaling $2.548 million for the first year with renewable options is to conduct research in support of the army’s transformation vision to a light objective force. This research will assist TACOM’s vision to develop digital human technology as a functional and effective tool for the design and evaluation of Future Combat Systems (FCS). A digital human is a computer character that has the appearance of a human, having the correct anatomy, behavior, motion, and intelligence. Digital humans are used to test and evaluate products, equipment, vehicles, and armaments before they are physically made with the immediate objectives to reduce time and cost.
The effort will address involving the human element of analysis and design very early during the design cycle, where a digital human characterized by a digital mannequin that looks, walks, and functions like a human can be launched into a computer environment and be requested to respond to questions that could not be attempted without having the physical product. Such questions could involve a complete battery of technical issues dealing with assembly of mechanical parts, whether the digital human can reach certain controls, has enough force to pull a control lever, or can open the door to a compartment. These human factors issues currently require significant physical testing by soldiers and require having the physical machine.
Furthermore, the digital human must be able to respond to more functional and behavioral questions such as scenarios dealing with in-theater tactical operations. A digital soldier positioned inside a tank can be asked the level of his comfort while the vehicle is cruising over rough terrain at 44 mi/hr and while the soldier is attempting to monitor an active display or activating a weapon. Indeed, these “what if” scenarios must be answered by an intelligent human model that has the capacity to feel the motion, to feel discomfort, to evaluate the situation, and to visualize and process the environment.
Research at The University of Iowa will combine rigorous engineering methods with components adapted from the entertainment and gaming industries to provide a road map for this technology development. The work complements existing expertise at the University and brings together researchers in engineering, medicine, animation, and military.
“The ultimate goal of this work is to enable new technologies aimed at reducing or eliminating the need for prototyping of large scale ground vehicles and armaments, by including digital human technology early in the design cycle. Working with the US Army TACOM will give us at Iowa significant leverage to advance this technology” said Dr. Karim Abdel-Malek, Professor of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering and Director of the Digital Humans and Virtual Reality Laboratories, who will lead this research project as the Principal Investigator. This program, called Virtual Soldier Research,
“It is obvious with current industry trends of building complete systems digitally in virtual worlds, that the human interface issue must be addressed as early as technology permits to control system cost. Therefore this program and the applications that result are a necessary and logical step to take current technology and approaches to the next level.” Said Mr. Kyle Nebel, Program Manager, U.S. Army TACOM.
“These advances in the creation of synthetic environments are very strong indication of the University's leadership in engineering education and research." said Dr. Derek Willard, Associate VP for Research and Special Assistant to the President for Governmental Relations. "It also provides great opportunities for industrial collaboration. The potential of this dual-use technology is of great interest to manufacturers seeking ways to streamline the time it takes to get products to the marketplace.”
In addition to Abdel-Malek who is a faculty member in mechanical and industrial engineering, eight other faculty members will investigate this research: Dr. Jasbir Arora and Dr. Colby Swan, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Dr. Nicole Grosland, Biomedical Engineering, Dr. Ray Han and Dr. Jia Lu, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Dr. Soura Dasgupta and Dr. Andrew Williams, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Dr. Thomas Cook, Occupational and Environmental Health.
The University of Iowa has fundamental enabling technologies for simulation, modeling, design, optimization, and dynamics based on a history of successful research and technology transfer. The Digital Humans and Virtual Reality Laboratories in CCAD were established to perform digital prototyping and design with humans in the loop. This integrated effort among several research groups and coupled with collaborative efforts with leading industry partners will create technologies that never existed before in design, soldier-machine interfacing, human factors, and virtual training.
For more information about this project, please visit www.digital-humans.org or contact Deborah-hampton@uiowa.edu.