sprocket
27th Apr 2002, 02:17
Australian Military Helicopter Simulation
This is supposedly a true story from a recent Defence Science
Lectures Series, as related by the head of the Australian DSTO's
Land Operations/Simulation division.
They've been working on some really nifty virtual reality
simulators, the case in point being to incorporate Armed
Reconnaissance Helicopters into exercises (from the data fusion
point of view). Most of the people they employ on this sort of
thing are ex- (or future) computer game programmers. Anyway, as
part of the reality parameters, they include things like trees
and animals. For the Australian simulation they included
kangaroos. In particular, they had to model kangaroo movements
and reactions to helicopters (since hordes of disturbed kangaroos
might well give away a helicopter's position).
Being good programmers, they just stole some code (which was
originally used to model infantry detachments reactions under the
same stimuli), and changed the mapped icon, the speed parameters,
etc. The first time they've gone to demonstrate this to some
visiting Americans, the hotshot pilots have decided to get "down
and dirty" with the virtual kangaroos. So, they buzz them, and
watch them scatter. The visiting Americans nod appreciatively...
then gape as the kangaroos duck around a hill, and launch about
two dozen Stinger missiles at the hapless helicopter.
Programmers look rather embarrassed at forgetting to remove that
part of the infantry coding... and Americans leave muttering
comments about not wanting to mess with the Aussie wildlife!
As an addendum, simulator pilots from that point onwards avoided
kangaroos like the plague, just like they were meant to do in the
first place.
:D
This is supposedly a true story from a recent Defence Science
Lectures Series, as related by the head of the Australian DSTO's
Land Operations/Simulation division.
They've been working on some really nifty virtual reality
simulators, the case in point being to incorporate Armed
Reconnaissance Helicopters into exercises (from the data fusion
point of view). Most of the people they employ on this sort of
thing are ex- (or future) computer game programmers. Anyway, as
part of the reality parameters, they include things like trees
and animals. For the Australian simulation they included
kangaroos. In particular, they had to model kangaroo movements
and reactions to helicopters (since hordes of disturbed kangaroos
might well give away a helicopter's position).
Being good programmers, they just stole some code (which was
originally used to model infantry detachments reactions under the
same stimuli), and changed the mapped icon, the speed parameters,
etc. The first time they've gone to demonstrate this to some
visiting Americans, the hotshot pilots have decided to get "down
and dirty" with the virtual kangaroos. So, they buzz them, and
watch them scatter. The visiting Americans nod appreciatively...
then gape as the kangaroos duck around a hill, and launch about
two dozen Stinger missiles at the hapless helicopter.
Programmers look rather embarrassed at forgetting to remove that
part of the infantry coding... and Americans leave muttering
comments about not wanting to mess with the Aussie wildlife!
As an addendum, simulator pilots from that point onwards avoided
kangaroos like the plague, just like they were meant to do in the
first place.
:D