An Affordable Medium-Fidelity Virtual Environment Soldier Simulator Designed for Infantry Combat Research

Abstract

Due to the expense of obtaining access to purpose-built virtual environments, it has traditionally been difficult for some researchers to examine questions of interest involving infantry combat performance. As part of on going research into stress and human performance in infantry combat, a highly affordable soldier simulator was constructed using off-the-shelf parts and equipment. Simulators of this type are highly flexible and scalable in design, allowing researchers to fabricate them to the requirements of the study and/or in proportion to available resources. Our demonstration will allow participants to operate the simulator themselves, or observe the demonstrators operating it. Additionally, they will be able to design their own missions and execute them in the simulator, with the assistance of trained personnel. The purpose of the demonstration is to acquaint human factors researchers with a system that demonstrates that solder simulator systems can be developed affordably and easily.