published_or_final_version / abstract / Architecture / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / abstract / Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Mechanical Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / abstract / Mechanical Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / abstract / Mechanical Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy

Trying to ‘learn’ the spatial layout of an environment is a common problem in certain application domains, such as military and emergency personnel training. Until recently this training was accomplished solely by providing maps and briefings of an environment. These methods, however, only provide topological (survey) knowledge of the environment, which pays little attention to the details of routes and landmarks that can only be acquired through the acquisition of procedural knowledge via navigation. Unlike previous experiments concerning spatial knowledge acquisition this work does not attempt to determine whether spatial knowledge acquisition is feasible. Such investigations have yielded a variety of results, yet all agree that spatial knowledge acquisition from a virtual environment is feasible if given enough exposure time. Accordingly, the aim of this thesis is to contribute towards a better understanding of how various individual differences and environmental factors impact the exposure time requirements needed for a person to acquire spatial knowledge from a virtual environment. Although the results of our investigation should be used with caution, we show that a one-size-fits-all situation is not possible when estimating the required exposure time that a user needs to acquire spatial knowledge. Moreover we provide a guide that allows a trainer to predict the required exposure time a person will require, by using the person's personal profile, and the environment's particular factors. In addition, we found that one of the tests we used during our investigation caused unnecessary frustration and confusion to our participants. This test is a standard way of finding a participant's orientation skill, and is commonly used in the area of spatial knowledge acquisition. Therefore, by recreating a new electronic version of the test and comparing the scores from both the new test and the old one our investigation showed that the scores on the new test were significantly higher for all participants. The training time was also lowered significantly. Our updated electronic version will be useful in future research. This test is available online at: www.newgztest.com.

No description available.

Modeling of visual perception for computer-generated forces and intelligent software agents is usually fairly feeble in computer games and military simulations. Most of the time, tricks or shortcuts are employed in the perceptual model. Under certain conditions, these shortcuts cause unrealistic behavior and detract from military training and user immersion into the simulated environment. Many computer games and simulations trace a ray between the target and observer to determine if the observer can see the target. More complex models are sometime used in military simulations. One of these models used in Army simulations is the ACQUIRE model. This model still may produce debatable results. The ACQUIRE visual perception model uses a single value for the targetâ s contrast with its background. This can cause unrealistic results in certain conditions, allowing computer-generated forces to see targets that should not be seen and not see targets that should. Testing these more complex models needs to be completed to determine the conditions under which the model gives questionable results. Testing ACQUIRE against human subjects helped determine when ACQUIRE behaves reasonably. The study consisted of multiple scenes with a target in many positions, multiple postures, and many different lighting and fog conditions. Now that testing and analysis is complete, modifications can be made to the visual perception model allowing it to give better results in more varied conditions, such as: low light, excessive fog conditions, and partially hidden targets.

Approved for public release, distribution unlimited / The individuals charged with the task of planning, developing and implementing force protection measures both at the unit and installation level must consider numerous factors in formulating the best defensive posture. Currently, force protection professionals utilize multiple sources of information regarding capabilities of systems that are available, and combine that knowledge with the requirements of their installation to create an overall plan. A crucial element missing from this process is the ability to determine, prior to system procurement, the most effective combination of systems and employment for a wide range of possible terrorist attack scenarios. This thesis is inspired by the work done by James Harney, LT, USN (2003). The thesis will expand the Anti-Terrorism Force Protection Tool developed during the original thesis by including the capability of testing force protection measures in multiple scenarios by utilizing models of force protection equipment and forces, virtual worlds of existing naval facilities, and terrorist agents that exhibit intent and behavioral characteristics which can test the effectiveness of the force protection equipment used. The result of this work is a scalable and repeatable methodology for generating large-scale, agent-based simulations for AT/FP problem domains providing 3D visualization, report generation, and statistical analysis.