Army's 'Google Earth On Steroids' Can Look Inside Buildings
Army's 'Google Earth On Steroids' Can Look Inside
Buildings
by Tyler Durden Tue, 05/28/2019 - 23:45
New mapping technology that is expected to transform
training and simulation exercises for America's warfighters was unveiled at the
IEEE Transportation Electrification Conference and Expo (ITEC) 2019 conference
on May 15 in Stockholm, Sweden, reported National Defense Magazine.
Jason Knowles, director of geospatial science and
technology at the University of Southern California's Institute for Creative
Technologies, an Army affiliated research center, spoke at ITEC about the new
terrain capture and reconstruction software that recreates complex environments
including cities for simulation exercises and war planning. The institute is
part of a cross-functional team working on the mapping software (called One
World Terrain (OWT) project).
Knowles described the new software as "Google Earth
on steroid."
At a briefing during ITEC, Knowles showed the audience a
picture of an enemy base that was captured and digitally re-created in about an
hour using commercial software and a small drone. "We were able to throw
that UAS up, capture that in an hour, put it on the laptop, process it, and
push it out," he said.
"The ability to have an individual or a squad go
out, collect their own organic 3D model for ingesting into their modeling and
simulation is huge for us," he said.
"The interior of buildings are now being fused and
snapped inside of that 3D model," Knowles said. The software can
"strip the outside of a building level by level and see what's inside the
building. That's obviously very useful for operators."
He said the software is linked with GPS data so war
planners can organize future real operations.
The rapid 3D terrain capture and reconstruction system is
supported by aerial imagery from satellites and aircraft. For higher
resolution, reconnaissance teams can deploy small, handheld drones to collect
much higher resolution imagery, he added.
The software uses machine learning and artificial
intelligence for the data merging component to "make the model smart, so
it's not just [identifying objects in] pictures," he said. For example, it
can tell troops if a perimeter wall of an enemy base needs to breached with a
vehicle or munition.
The new mapping software is one of the Army's top
modernization priorities, besides long-range precision missiles,
next-generation combat vehicle, future vertical lift, air-and-missile defense,
directed energy weapons, next-generation combat rifle, and soldier lethality.
Comments
Post a Comment