Adaptive Immersion Game Helps Identify UxV Operators for Navy

Can a video game help the U.S. Navy find future operatorsfor its remotely operated, unmanned vehicles (UxV), popularly called drones?

To find out, the Naval Aerospace Medical Institute andAdaptive Immersion Technologies are developing a computer game to identifyindividuals with the right skills to be UxV operators. The project, sponsoredby the Office of Naval Research (ONR), is called StealthAdapt.

“The Navy currently doesn’t have a test like this to predictwho might excel as UxV operators,” said Lt. Cmdr. Peter Walker, a programofficer in ONR’s Warfighter Performance Department. “This fast-paced, realisticcomputer simulation of UxV missions could be an effective recruitment tool.”

Since the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq began, UxV haveplayed ever-larger roles in intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, andother missions. Consequently, there’s an increasing need for well-trained UxVoperators.

In recent years, the Air Force established its own formalscreening process for remotely piloted aircraft operators, and the Marine Corpsdesignated an unmanned aviation systems (UAS) career path for its ranks.

The Navy, however, doesn’t have an official selection andtraining pipeline specifically for its UxV operators, who face challengesunique to the service. For UAS duty, the Navy has taken aviators who alreadyearned their wings; provided on-the-job, UAS-specific training; and placed themin temporary positions.

However, this presents challenges. It’s costly andtime-consuming to add more training hours, and it takes aviators away fromtheir manned aircraft duties. Finally, the cognitive skills needed forsuccessful manned aviation can vary from those needed for unmanned operators.

StealthAdapt is designed to address this issue. It consistsof a cognitive test, personality assessment and biographical historyassessment. The cognitive exam is the game-based component of the system andtakes the form of a search-and-rescue mission. Each player’s assignment is torescue as many stranded friendly forces as possible, within a pre-set timelimit, while avoiding fire from hostile forces.

If that’s not stressful enough, players must simultaneouslymonitor chat-based communications, make sure they have enough fuel and batterypower to complete missions, memorize and enter authentication codes requiredfor safe rescue of friendlies, decode encrypted information and maintainsituational awareness.

“We’re trying to see how well players respond underpressure, which is critical for success as an unmanned operator,” said Dr.Phillip Mangos, president and chief scientist at Adaptive ImmersionTechnologies. “We’re looking for attention to detail, the ability to multitaskand prioritize, and a talent for strategic planning — thinking 10 moves aheadof your adversary.”

To maintain this pressure, players complete multiple 5- to10-minute missions in an hour. Each scenario changes, with different weather,terrain, number of friendlies and hostiles, and potential communicationbreakdowns.

After finishing the game portion, participants answerquestions focusing on personality and biographical history. Mangos’ team thencrunches this data with game-performance metrics to create a comprehensiveoperator evaluation.

Last year, over 400 civilian and military volunteersparticipated as StealthAdapt research subjects at various Navy and Air Forcetraining centers. Mangos and his research team currently are reviewing theresults and designing an updated system for validation by prospective Navy andAir Force unmanned operators. It will be ready for fleet implementation thisyear.

Mangos envisions StealthAdapt serving as a stand-alonetesting and recruitment tool, or as part of a larger screening process such asthe Selection for UAS Personnel, also known as SUPer. SUPer is an ONR-sponsoredseries of specialized tests that assesses cognitive abilities and personalitytraits of aspiring UxV operators.