Módulo 12 - Marinha do Brasil - Centro de Instrução Almirante Sylvio de Camargo (CIASC)

First of all, good morning to everyone. I'm Captain Corvetta "Naval Rifleman" Souza Almeida. I'm the Head of the Naval Riflemen Simulation Center.

And the idea of this presentation is to show a little bit to all of you about the activities involving the simulation area within the Naval Riflemen Corps. So for this, the purpose of this presentation is to describe the activities developed in this sense, in addition to providing participants with knowledge about the armored combat simulation in the vision of the Naval Riflemen Corps of the Brazilian Navy. For this, the idea is to talk a little bit about the definitions in the simulation area, the advantages and limitations, their possibilities too, historical traction, a timeline of what would be the creation of the simulation center and its activities being carried out.

We'll also talk a little bit about the simulators that were developed and the simulators that were acquired throughout this time. All of this in this timeline and concluding by making some final considerations. Some basic definitions now, just for us to talk, to have the same speech as during the presentation.

Now about the definition of what the simulation is in general. There are several definitions in the world. One of them that we usually talk about here is that the simulation is precisely a method to implement a model over time.

This method, this implementation, uses mathematical techniques, mathematical models to create these computational programs, these computational models that allow to imitate the functioning of real things, the functioning of practically any type of operation or process in the real world, or what is intended to become real, so to speak. An example that we have is the mathematical model of an ocean that exists, CASNAV even has implemented a very interesting model, the question of speed control when a certain test is performed, a certain simulation, also the change of climatic conditions within a certain exercise, is also a mathematical model. And all this mathematics, let's say, all this implementation, this software that is developed, it goes through a process of verification, validation and accreditation to become usable.

The systems, as they are not 100% real, they differ from the management system in the battlefield, for example, they need, they have, in fact, a percentage of acceptability to be used. It is logical, of course, still highlighting here, the focus of training, the focus of training with simulation is precisely in the cognitive, what we say, what we usually say is the mass of the blood, the training, the amount of training that we do, our body records, it assimilates a certain behavior that I adopt and starts to adopt automatically. It is customary in stressful situations, people, they work, they do not know what to do, and this training, this training, enables the person to know what to do, their body to know what to do, and with that it does automatically.

It is logical that we say here too, that no training, no training, it replaces, in the simulator, replaces the real exercise too. And now, continuing on the definitions part, the simulation can be classified according to, usually there are three types, three types of niches, let's say. The first one is precisely what we call live simulation.

In this part of live simulation, both the environment and the people, the users are real. And all this interaction that we have between the users, the human participation, it is watched, it is assisted by means of equipment that are implemented, for example, in the military rifle, that is, in a telephone equipment, every equipment that aims precisely to assist in the definitions, in the score or in the result of an interaction. The second definition that we have here is precisely the virtual niche classification.

When the human participation is real, if there are real users, however, the environment is simulated, the environment is virtual. And in that idea, in that sense, precisely this training in a virtual environment has several possibilities to generate stress for the person and train that part of the cognitive too. And the third type of classification is precisely the constructive simulation.

When both the environment is virtual and the human participation is also simulated through mathematical models. And what is trained with this, who is trained with this, are precisely the people who give the orders to these troops that are on the ground. They are usually the planners who are conducting a military operation.

Even in this image, in the lower right corner, we can see, there are pieces of maneuvering on the ground. So, precisely, the constructive simulation serves for this, to train the decision makers, so to speak. Now, talking a little bit about the importance of the simulation, we highlight here precisely the maintenance of the training of the troop, my expeditionary character, my expeditionary ability to conduct an operation, in addition, we also have the possibility to test equipment, to test means even before they are acquired.

That is, I can check through the simulation if it meets my demand for a certain type of operation that I will perform with it. Another possibility is also to test the dimensioning of my strength for a certain type of operation. I can make a planning and, through the constructive simulation, I can arrive and coagulate my planning in the virtual world and test if that worked or not, if my planning is adequate, if it fulfills my tasks, that is, if it meets my demand.

And, in addition, also my logistic dimensioning. That is, logistics is the power of combat. For me to be able to do a certain operation, for me to be able to act in a certain region, I have to have the troop, but I also have to have my logistics supporting this troop.

Water, food, ammunition, if that's the case. And for that, I must also do this logistic test, if it is meeting me in the construction of my operations. Other advantages also involve, for example, the economy of resources.

When I'm going to move to a place to do a training with an armored vehicle, for example, I have a fuel consumption, I wear out the piece, I wear out the material, I wear out my own troop as well. In addition, through the simulation, I can reduce the damage to my environment a lot. And also the issue of carbon credits.

We can, with the simulation, do things that in the real world are difficult. For example, if I have to move to a road and get out of it entering a fence, climbing a fence, something like that. It is very difficult for us to be able to do this in the real world.

It can cause some kind of damage. In that sense, these are things that we want to avoid. But with the simulation, no, we can train certain types of things.

In addition, there is the fact that I am working, operating or training in a controlled environment. We can see in the figure that is further to the left above, the military in the open velcro simulator, the parachute simulator. And then imagine you, in the middle of a training like this, I have the ability to correct my user, my student, let's put it this way, the military who is training, during the process of using the open velcro.

I mean, the possibilities that I have to correct it in real time improve a lot, greatly increase my training. In addition, as I am operating in a controlled environment, I have the ability to reduce my damage, also reduce injuries or fractures, things like that. Because precisely my soldiers will be working through the simulation operating in a controlled environment.

In addition, my learning curve is much more ingrame. I gain time, for example, when I finish a simulation and I press a button, I start the whole simulation again. That is, I have a great advantage in this, I gain a lot of time.

Not to mention the reduction of material wear. When I'm starting an activity, I'm starting a training, one of the things that happens is the user, in the middle, as he does not know the restrictions, or the possibilities and limitations of the means, he goes and uses without having this knowledge, so he can often wear the equipment, without even having the intention, he has no intention of it, but he does not know how to use it. So the simulation is used for that too.

For example, if I get a shielded environment, without knowing how to operate it, having the first contact, I use the real environment directly, the probability of me causing some damage, or me suffering some damage, can be great. So the simulation can serve, it can help in that sense too. Equipment, for example, I buy, I can test it in my simulator before, that is, there are a number of advantages that I can have through the use of the simulation.

Another aspect that we also observe in these three images, is the ability that I have with the simulation to do my training, both individually, as we observe there on the left, where the soldier, with his virtual reality glasses and his equipment in the virtual world, he has no movement restriction, so I can impose situations on him, so that he can face them with as much security as possible, create a controlled environment as it is there, not only the individual training, but we can also train in teams, as we have seen in the figure in the middle, this one in the middle is a training in the area of ​​diving, that is, it is very interesting. I can, as I mentioned earlier, train procedures to be executed in a certain situation, and with that I can train, either in water, or in water simulation, or in my behavior. And besides that, as we see there in the figure on the right, I can train situations where I need to predict, for example, what kind of means or what kind of equipment I can come to acquire, that is, in my interest to acquire, or that is interesting for me to acquire.

Of course, as I mentioned earlier, highlighting the issue of military cognitive training, that issue of blood mass, repetition, will make my body understand that. And also, why not, I test my doctrine. If I wrote something, or if I have a certain doctrine about a certain behavior in a patrol, I can very well use the simulator and test if this doctrine ends up being valid for me, or valid for what it proposes.

Now, a little bit about the timeline, here at the Simulation Center, since its creation. The Simulation Center emerged at the end of the 1980s, in fact, its concept, at the beginning of the 1990s, with the then Lieutenant Captain, Naval Rifleman Gilberto. He came back from courses abroad, he took a course abroad, and he came across this, training using the simulator.

He found this idea very interesting and started, as he had this vocation for programming, he started working on this research and development part. Later, the CFN sought out institutions that had expertise on the subject. At the time, the one that stood out a lot was the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, PUC-Rio, and this partnership, this sum that happened, culminated precisely in the creation of what would be, at the time, the Didactic Games Center, which today we call the Naval Rifleman Corps Simulation Center.

This partnership generated a first version of a simulator that we call the Didactic Games System. This simulator, as I said before, is a constructive simulator, that is, the troop and the environment are simulated. It was developed in partnership with the TecGraf Institute, there in PUC-Rio, and precisely its purpose is to train the planning cells, that is, the cells of the greater state of the operational units of the Naval Riflemen Corps, in their process of control of the planned action, that is, it is the control of that action that is being executed.

I make a landing in a certain area, I start to make my movements, and the situations come up. There is an enemy platoon that has intercepted a patrol, or the company was moving and suddenly there is a battalion approaching it. I have to know what to do about it.

And to perform this type of exercise in a real environment is complicated. So, with this simulator, it does just fine for this type of purpose. To serve this type of action, decision-making processes of the military.

This development of this simulator, it goes until more or less 2012 with PUC. This partnership was interrupted this year. So, from 2012 onwards, everything that has been developed in this simulator is with the staff here from the simulation center itself.

This partnership ended in 2012, in this part of the construction simulation, but it takes full force in 2018, both in the development part, properly said, of simulators, as well as in the training of the staff to, in the future, incorporate the chimneys here from the simulation center in the research and development part. So, we have the shipment of an officer to do a master's degree there at PUC, and also the beginning of the development of the armored simulator, the virtual armored simulator, which is a simulator that serves precisely to train the crews in the armored environment in the use of their immediate action techniques. What is the immediate action technique?

These are procedures that the crew has to adopt. And crew, when I say, is the operator, that is, that guy, that military who drives the vehicle, let's put it this way, and the commander of the vehicle, is the one who makes the decisions and has the equipment, and stores the equipment of the armored environment. I train this staff precisely in my process of the crew making the decisions.

My conduct, when I'm going to move to a certain place, whether it's an urban area, whether it's an open area, if I have more than one armored environment, for example, moving through a certain region, how will these armored vehicles behave? For example, when an aircraft passes by them, that is, they are conducts that I, training in an environment, I will not necessarily be able to observe this aircraft in the real environment, I say, but in the simulator we have this ability to train. In addition, I can configure my simulator, as I mentioned here, I can, as we can see on the screen there in the video, in the left corner, I have here four armored vehicles moving, and in this movement it has to be organized, it has to have a conduct, and what we are seeing in this video is precisely that.

And then, going back to the subject here, I can configure my simulator, say who is who, who is the commander of the vehicle, who is the operator of the vehicle, and know exactly which armored environment, so that I can correct in real time the conduct of that crew of that environment. And then, with that, I can bring more dynamism and a much faster correction of what I am doing, of my training. In addition, I can also configure my scenario, insert the various forces with the configuration that I want, insert cars and a number of others, other elements that cause reactions strange to those who are training, for example, a pool in the middle of the street.

We have the ability, this armored vehicle, the idea of ​​this engine is that it has the ability to insert things in that sense too, which makes the training more interesting, let's put it that way. In 2020, this officer who was trained, he comes back with the idea of ​​a simulator for the study of the terrain, we will talk about it in a little while. In addition, we sent a second officer to train and do the master's degree there in PUC-Rio.

This simulator, we call it the virtual simulator for topographic study of the terrain. What is my problem that he wants to deal with? When I want to train, when I want to conduct a military operation in a certain region, I have a problem that I need to do an analysis of the terrain that I am going to operate.

I need to know where I can go, where, for example, I can position my artillery, what is the limit, for example, between companies, where a company can move without interfering with the action of another company, so I have a series of nuances, of conditioners that I have to have to be able to make my planning. And for me to be able to do this planning, I have to know how the terrain is configured, I have to know what the elevations are, what is their conformity. For example, if we look at the video up front, we have a giant elevation, how am I going to pass a company over there?

That is, I will go around this elevation. And when I do this type of study, this type of analysis of the terrain, I have a lot of abstraction in this analysis. I have to imagine a lot when I go to a real terrain.

And precisely in the trainings to do this analysis, I have a lot of abstraction too. And this makes it difficult, it can end up making the learning process difficult. And this simulator is designed for that.

I take this factor of abstraction, I insert it in a simulator and I take this abstraction out of the simulator. And I can put it, for example, where the company is, how we can see where the company is going to move in the blue arrow. I can observe, for example, where my enemy position would be.

How would my movement be to that enemy position? So this simulator is designed for that, for me to be able to see things that I usually visualize in the terrain. This simulator uses three interfaces.

We can observe in the video that is in the center there too. The first interface that I highlight here is the virtual reality interface. It gives us a greater immersion.

We can observe the terrain with greater precision. And then with this immersion, with this precision, we can have a more detailed study of a specific region, if I want to address a specific subject about a certain area. The second interface is a projection interface that we call.

We can observe in the upper right image. It allows greater breadth in the study. I can put more users to be able to observe this study.

So with that, I can also see, for example, the user's face of doubt, of the students. And I can clear doubts if it is the case. That is, I have a very interesting interaction.

And the third interface is an interface that uses the tablet. So we have a high vision and we can insert drawings, we can insert some objects too. As well as the virtual reality interface.

These two have this ability. This simulator is already being used in some courses here, as we are already observing here in the video that is running here in the center. So that we can already drive, we can already give a good notion to the students, even if they are in the classroom, of everything that we do or consider in a terrain analysis.

Or even, as was the case of this video in the center, of a turn of the horizon. This was the purpose of this course, in this case. This simulator, it was used, it has been used.

We did some experiments with it too, along with the aspirants. And the result was quite positive. To the point that we presented this simulator at a conference last year, which was ITSEC.

ITSEC is a fair that takes place in Orlando every year. And it involves, precisely, the participation of forces from all over the world. Be it armed forces or auxiliary forces too.

A series of companies. So it was very interesting to take this simulator there. Not only the simulator, but the article, the proof of concept that it works and works well.

Continuing here, the officer who went to study in 2020, he returns in 2022 bringing a new proof of concept, which would be precisely the virtual simulator for training and decision-making. This simulator, it aims precisely to train, as we say here, the military cognitive, in the individual process of decision-making, in what sense? When I'm operating in a certain region, be it in this environment that we're seeing there in the video, or also in a patrol in the middle of the street, I have to identify, be it in a green area, in a safer area, in a more tense area, identify if I have, for example, a person who is hostile or not to me, or to another, or to third parties.

So this simulator serves for that. And this whole process of decision-making, between identifying if it is a hostile person, identifying the conduct of this person, if it is aggressive, if it will attack me or attack another person, making the decision to make this person stop doing what he is doing, if I have to use a weapon, a less lethal ammunition, a lethal ammunition, or shooting in the right place, all of this in less than a second. So we can, through this simulator, train this.

And it ends up generating its difficulties, as everything we do in this simulator, it is observed, it is noted, it is registered. So we can generate a series of tensions. And it is a work that is very interesting, it is a proof of concept, but we are already working on it, on its development.

It was validated by the instructors, and it was a very interesting test. We saw people really stressed, tense, let's say, sweating, literally, to do the exercise. It was very interesting.

We can configure this simulator in several ways, whether it is a house, whether it is also the shooting stand mode, so that it allows us to train standing or moving, as we saw in the previous video. Future intentions that we also have is to test your validation through stress, that change in the heart rate, the galvanic resistance of the skin, that is, if the person is sweating a lot. These are indicators that greatly validate the training.

If the person is having an effect, a good effect on the person's training. In addition, a multiplayer version of it would also be very interesting. The issue is also of the channels of interaction in virtual reality, the part of displacement.

At the beginning, in the displacement, we highlight here studies looking for the insertion, in this simulator, of a unidirectional treadmill, which allows the displacement of the person without leaving the place. This will greatly facilitate training. The issue of gesticulating in a virtual environment and the issue of touch too.

I will be able to, in the real world, make a certain movement, and a person will perceive this movement, or touch the shoulder in the virtual world, and the person will feel this touch on the shoulder, also in the real world. Now I'm going to talk a little bit about the simulators that CFN has acquired over the years, but also with a focus on this part of the training, looking for the training. We have here the tactical simulator of laser infantry.

It was acquired in 2006, and it is the simulator that we say is a live simulator. These are equipments that we insert in the middle, in the person, in the military, which are attached to the rifle and also to the helmet, to the vest, so that we can have this interaction between the combatants in the middle of an operation. Here are some photos of the simulator, how it is, how the trainings are executed.

The idea is that we can distract teams in the middle of a real situation, a real training, with these equipments assisting precisely the conduct of the military. And the military, through this equipment, effectively perceives that it can be targeted, and it can leave the simulation, it can be excluded from the game, let's say, from the serious game. And with that, a stress is generated in the military, and it responds to this stress.

So that's what validates a lot the training with the live simulation. Another simulator that we also have is the tactical simulator Indoor, by MEGGIT. This simulator is also acquired for shooting stands.

It has some very interesting characteristics, it allows this training Indoor, this response. Some photos there can be both shooting stands and also some defensive, some operation in that sense. We have some partners, that without them none of this would be possible, which would be the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, as already mentioned here, through the TecGraph Institute, and the Marine Technological Center of Rio de Janeiro, through the Naval Systems Analysis Center, which also helps us to have a very interesting interaction, this exchange of knowledge, exchange of knowledge in a general way is very interesting.

And conclusions, as final comments here, I highlight the search that we always have here for the part of the training of the military, to be able to either do maintenance on the simulator, or look for research and development in the part of new simulations, new types of simulators. The search for the part of technological innovation, new simulators, new trends, new fronts, let's put it this way, focused on the training of the military. And the most important of all is the issue of the valuation of the national product.

The national product, it can provide for us things that normally the market does not provide, such as the strategic nature of a product, a specific demand that I have, I have the ability to develop the product to measure, my cost also reduces. So there are a number of factors, a number of aspects that are very important for this part of research and development. Not to mention the search that we also have with national partners, looking for this part of research and development.

I thank the attention, I thank the availability, the invitation to be here, and I am available for any questions, especially on the phones that I mention, which are highlighted on the screen. Thank you all very much and I wish you all a great day. ADSUMUS!