A Sailor puts on futuristic goggles and begins manipulating unseen objects as a classroom full of trainees watch a high-definition screen display of the inner workings of a submarine being disassembled. This is not a scene from a big-budget blockbuster movie; it is cutting-edge technology being developed at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Division, Keyport.

Augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) systems are not the stuff of science fiction movies anymore; they are working technologies that significantly enhance the gaming and entertainment experiences of people around the world. The Human Performance Engineering (HPE) Branch of NUWC Division, Keyport’s In-Service Engineering Department sees the potential in AR/VR for benefits far beyond the slaying of virtual dragons in a high-tech game. The HPE team believes the ability to create a “head’s up” display over the real world (augmented reality), or fully immerse the user in a digitally-created world (virtual reality) offers unparalleled opportunities for training and even operations.

Philip Pitts, an AR/VR Research Specialist, is leading a team in the HPE branch who are intent on creating tangible benefits for the Navy and Department of Defense with AR/VR technology.

“We have a unique role here where we evaluate interesting new technologies such as AR/VR, exoskeletons, etc. We remove the marketing hype, and determine how these technologies can be applied to modernize the Navy and solve Fleet requirements,” said Pitts.

Sitting in a breakroom surrounded by a few motivational posters inspired by the hit film “The Matrix,” Pitts looks for all the world like a young man straight out of college in his blue jeans and gray sweater. However, he quickly dispels that myth by describing a career that included time as a developer in the private sector before he joined the HPE team at NUWC Division, Keyport two years ago.

“I was interested in building augmented reality and virtual reality,” Pitts said. “The Navy has resources you just can’t get in a start-up. What’s also great about working here is you get to make sure you’re not just developing flashy stuff, but tools that have a real impact on the fleet.”

Pitts’ first exposure to AR/VR tools at NUWC Division, Keyport came when he witnessed a small prototype demonstrated using a low-cost, off-the-shelf virtual reality headset. The prototype was a proof-of-concept device that solved a specific training problem, but also demonstrated the applicability of AR/VR to a much wider range of training and job support needs. Pitts and his team began working to bring more sophisticated AR/VR technology to the fleet.

“Virtual reality training is well suited to training tasks that are dangerous, rarely performed or expensive to perform,” Pitts said. In the future, for example, explosive ordnance disposal personnel could use VR to control a remotely-operated vehicle to disarm an explosive device, or maintenance technicians could use VR gear to control a small robot conducting delicate work in tight spaces without going through the time and expense of disassembling large systems in ships, aircraft or other equipment.

The obvious application for AR/VR is for training. The benefit of being able to immerse trainees in a virtual world that lets them interact with entire systems on ships, submarines and aircraft—without the cost of building full-scale mock-ups—can potentially save millions of dollars while ensuring the training material is always up to date. Pitts demonstrated this very concept earlier by virtually disassembling and reassembling several major components on a submarine. Every part, every wire and walkway was reproduced in a virtual world, allowing him to do everything except touch the actual components.

“We’re now in the low-rate initial production phase,” Pitts said. This means the HPE team is beginning to field working units to the fleet for testing, evaluation and demonstration.  NUWC Division, Keyport’s obvious focus is on the submarine fleet, but Pitts said his team is eager to extend the opportunity for AR/VR technology to the surface fleet, naval air forces and other branches of DoD.

The largest hurdles to getting AR/VR technology into practical use at sea and in the shipyards are “rugged ability” and cyber security. “Rugged ability” is simply the equipment’s ability to withstand the normal wear and tear of an industrial environment.  This can be addressed in the construction phase of the equipment to make sure the gear is broken the first time it is dropped on a steel deck.

Cyber security is a more difficult hurdle to safely cross. “There’s a hefty investment in making sure our systems can meet the cyber security requirements in the fleet,” Pitts said.

The 21st century is a time when information warfare is as critical to the battlespace as torpedoes, aircraft and bullets. Most commercial AR/VR equipment is simply not built to a standard that supports the high-level cyber security needs of the Navy. Developing the right kind of security to keep Navy AR/VR systems safe from a cyber-attack is a critical part of the HPE team’s efforts. AR/VR tools utilize wireless communication, and wireless communication is easier to target than hardwired systems are. Protecting AR/VR technology from hostile actors is as much a priority as ensuring the technology performs efficiently when put into the hands of Sailors.

For the moment, Pitts and his team are focused on getting AR/VR technology into the Navy’s technical schools. However, their end goal is to impact the entire landscape of the Department of Defense.

“The logical next step after getting AR/VR technology into schools is to integrate them into the operational world,” Pitts said. To accomplish this, the team is actively analyzing how AR/VR technology is being used in the private sector while working to also identify future trends so that they can be positioned to have ready-made solutions to those challenges on the horizon.

One day soon, it may be a common sight to see a Sailor don a special pair of glasses and receive real-time guidance in performing even routine maintenance as AR/VR technology leaves the movie theatre and steps foot on the deck plate.

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