Artificial Intelligence Assisted Virtual Reality Warfighter Training System

Present military forces need to prepare for increasingly varied and complex situations and maintain the readiness of their warfighters for several different scenarios. There is a constant challenge of working with limited resources - people, time, and funding. Military leaders are seeking new training technologies that can meet their goals better, faster, and cheaper. Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) have emerged as extremely useful technologies for developing new training tools since they allow for easy creation and maintenance of multiple scenarios and environments. Using AR/VR for training lowers the travel and living costs associated with bringing the trainees to a central training facility, while still completely immersing the trainees in the environment. Another advantage of using AR/VR compared to traditional tools is that by using AR/VR, trainees are completely immersed in the environment, which makes it much more natural for them to consume the training material. At GE Research, we are exploring technologies to incorporate Artificial Intelligence (AI) methodologies in an immersive VR based training environment for warfighters. We have developed an AI assisted VR system for ground soldier training. In this VR training environment, the soldier (Blue Team/Blue Force) is teamed up with an AI assistant that will help them navigate an urban setting and successfully reach their goal in a stealth mode while escaping the gaze of enemy soldiers (Red Team/Red Force). We have used AI enabled virtual humans for the enemy soldiers. In addition, we have created an AI enabled, VR drone simulation to assist the dismounted soldier to move undetected through the environment.