A Systems Approach to the Design of Training Devices: A Model and its Application

Abstract

Due to the increasing costs of operation and maintenance of hardware, the use of training devices as an alternative to the use of the operational device is taking on an increasingly important role. As the state of simulation technology advances, much “better” devices, from the standpoint of training utility, are available. Unfortunately, the cost of a device increases almost exponentially as a function of its complexity. The goal of designing a set of training devices for a given system, therefore, is to maintain maximum training utility while minimizing overall device costs (i.e., device complexity). This paper discusses a methodology developed by Calspan Corporation which approaches this problem in a systematic manner.