DARPA: Can You Outsmart an Enemy Submarine Commander?

By John Ohab

Can you best an enemy submarine commander so he can’t escape into the ocean depths?

If you think you can, you are invited to put yourself into the virtual driver’s seat of one of several Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) configurations and show the world how you can use its capabilities to follow an enemy submarine.

DARPA’s ACTUV program is developing a fundamentally new tool for the Navy’s ASW toolkit and seeks your help to explore how best to use this tool to track quiet submarines. Before autonomous software is developed for ACTUV’s computers, DARPA needs to determine what approaches and methods are most effective. To gather information from a broad spectrum of users, ACTUV has been integrated into the Dangerous WatersTM game. DARPA is offering this new ACTUV Tactics Simulator for free public download.

This software has been written to simulate actual evasion techniques used by submarines, challenging each player to track them successfully. Your tracking vessel is not the only ship at sea, so you’ll need to safely navigate among commercial shipping traffic as you attempt to track the submarine, whose driver has some tricks up his sleeve.

You will earn points as you complete mission objectives, and will have the opportunity to see how you rank against the competition on DARPA’s leaderboard page.You can also share your experiences and insights from playing the simulator with others.

As you complete each scenario in the simulation, you may submit your tracking tactics to DARPA for analysis.  DARPA will select the best tactics and build them into the ACTUV prototype.

Media with inquiries can contact DARPA Public Affairs at DARPAPublicAffairsOffice@darpa.mil.

Driving Simulator

New Army Driving Simulator Sharpens Skills


March 12, 2010 - Because one-third as many soldiers are killed in vehicle accidents as in combat, researchers are developing a training simulator that creates environments mirroring the challenges servicemembers face behind the wheel.

“Our work is focused on how wheeled vehicles behave on gravel, loose stones, mud, snow and ice, because these are surfaces where military vehicles frequently operate,” Barry Coutermarsh, a research engineer with the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab (CRREL) in Hanover, N.H., said in a March 10 interview on the “Armed with Science” podcast.

Coutermarsh said today’s heavily armored vehicles have a higher center of gravity that makes them more susceptible to rollovers.

His colleague at the lab, Dr. Sally Shoop, said one key to improving safety is allowing drivers to exercise maneuvering in bad situations so they build up a muscle memory that can react automatically.

“One of the really important things to do in avoiding an accident is to look at where you want to go, not at the obstacle you might hit,” she said.

Professional race car drivers who help to conduct traditional Army driver training first came up with the idea that more soldiers would benefit if a portable, military-optimized driving simulator were available. The research program to develop that simulator is called SAVE, which stands for Synthetic Automotive Virtual Environments.

Eye-tracking goggles help train eye placement for accident avoidance. Courtesy CRREL.

The first development phase involves capturing real data from specially instrumented vehicles to record every bit of contact with the ground. “It’s all about where the tire meets the road for real vehicles,” Shoop explained, “because that’s where the forces transmit from the terrain to the vehicle.” Programmers feed collected data into the simulator.

So far, test results have been promising. Shoop and Coutermarsh are seeking additional funding to expand trials.

“It would be nice to get some soldiers into the simulator and get their input,” Shoop said. She added that younger soldiers who are attuned to video games seem to enjoy learning in virtual environments. “Hopefully, we can train them to drive a vehicle better and they can have fun at the same time,” she said.

Beyond military applications, the researchers said the simulator could pay off in added safety for all road vehicles and that it could provide data to improve the way gravel roads are constructed.

[This story was modified from the original American Forces Press Service story, which can be found at Defense.gov.]