The GRILL® team, along with our collaborators, attended the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) in November. We brought along with us the DART simulation, which was made in collaboration with Aptima Technologies, and our OpenDIS plugins for Unity Engine and Unreal Engine. This also marked the one-year birthday of our OpenDIS plugin for Unreal, whose development initially began during IronDev at I/ITSEC 2021. GRILL project manager Winston (Wink) Bennett, who was inducted into the National Center for Simulation (NCS) hall of fame just over a month before I/ITSEC, spoke on behalf of the GRILL, the 711th Human Performance Wing, and AFRL while at the conference.
Dr. Winston (Wink) Bennett speaks about The GRILL and AFRL at I/ITSEC
As mentioned by Wink in the video, the GRILL not only went to I/ITSEC to see the simulations and take inspiration, but also to show the simulations we have created. DART (Driving-based Adaptive Research Testbed) is a simulation created by The GRILL in collaboration with Aptima Inc. to study the human response in heart rate and brain activity when being bombarded by auditory and visual input while driving a Humvee. Users must respond to the auditory and visual input in a timely manner, all while keeping the Humvee on the path. The resulting data can help the Air Force better understand how to present information to a soldier who is already in an already stressful environment in an effective and less stress-inducing way.
The GRILL also presented our OpenDIS plugins for both Unreal Engine and Unity Engine. OpenDIS is an open-source networking standard which allows multiple simulations to communicate with each other seamlessly. Prior to the GRILL’s OpenDIS plugins, there were no open source, easy to implement DIS (Distributed Interactive Simulation) solutions for Unreal Engine or Unity Engine. Our open source plugin allows simulations created in Unreal or Unity to send and receive DIS updates seamlessly, allowing for Unreal/Unity created simulations to communicate according to a widely adopted simulation communication standard.
The GRILL has been participating in I/ITSEC for multiple years, and intends to continue bringing their newest simulations to the conference in years to come.
About The GRILL
The Gaming Research Integration for Learning Lab® (GRILL®) is a part of AFRL. We’re focused on research and development to evaluate and apply commercial, academic, and government game-based modeling and simulation technologies. Our mission is to conduct training research, integration, and evaluation efforts that demonstrate how these technologies can be used to increase the operational efficiency and effectiveness of education and training for our Airmen and Guardians and to advance workforce development and STEM. We also publish and present our findings in collaboration with other researchers and practitioners to help advance gaming modeling and simulation use cases and applications. For more information, visit: www.af-grill.com.
AFRL Clearance No. AFRL-2023-0465