Talon Demos Strike VR Flight Training Platform

Can an arcade games developer graduate to serious flight simulators? Halldale Group Editor Marty Kauchak got a look at Talon Simulations’ prototype Strike full-motion simulator.

Don’t let the “low cost” label fool you. Talon Simulations’ Strike full-motion simulator, another new entry in the defense aviation market optimizes COTS content, and when feasible integrates artificial intelligence, commercial gaming, data analytics and other underpinning technology thrusts increasingly sought by military training organizations.

The Strike platform has been in development for six years, according to Brandon Naids, CEO/Co-Founder of Talon Simulations, Orlando, Florida. The corporate leader pointed out the modular training device design “allows us to attach different controls and then replicate different ground and air vehicles, simply by swapping out a yoke for a steering wheel, and basing training around the virtual reality display.”

He added, “We’re really taking advantage of lowering the size requirements and cost constraints of many full flight simulators by putting the whole display on your head, rather than providing a full dome experience.”

By integrating different software applications, Talon Simulations is further allowing the simulator to support different weapons platform types and extend the training experience beyond an individual to an entire onboard crew, on different training platforms, and to other training device-based vehicles.

MS&T viewed the Strike platform between demonstrations for US DoD influencers and decision makers. The training device was recently put through its paces for the US Air Force’s 189th Airlift Wing and 314th Airlift Wing, both of which are components of Air Education and Training Command (AETC) and was also evaluated by members of the Air Force Global Strike Command Staff Innovation Cell. The platform was further being readied for demonstrations the first week in February for service leadership and their staffs at Little Rock AFB, Arkansas, and Barksdale AFB (Shreveport, Louisiana).

MegaGrant as Seed Money

Talon Simulations’ full-motion simulator is rapidly evolving through the support of an Epic Games MegaGrant. To point, Talon Simulations’ collaborative efforts from this grant are integrating BeBop Sensors’ Forte Haptic Gloves, and the competencies of CyberDream, a mixed-reality software development company. Naids pointed to this assembled industry team and its progress to date with the Strike platform, emphasizing, “This all would not have been possible without the investment of Epic.”

Mirroring one of many emerging trends in the defense S&T community, the Strike full-motion simulator’s genesis is from the commercial space – specifically, the commercial entertainment sector. “This is actually a platform designed for arcades,” Naids explained, and added his company worked with Dave & Buster’s (a US-based restaurant chain with onsite game arcades) the last three years on virtual reality simulators in their arcades, “which is allowing us to transition our knowledge for high-throughput, high-demand environments to military applications.”

Filling the Middle Ground Gap

Where might the Strike platform fit in the training continuum for pilots? Naids’ goal is for the device to “provide the same level of fidelity that you get in a Level D simulator, but at one-tenth the cost, and having it used in tandem – to bridge the gap between desktop trainers and Level D flight simulators, since there seems to be a lack of ‘middle ground’ simulators that are high fidelity at a more accessible price point.”

Pressed for details, the Talon Simulations leader provided a vital datum point, which should further fuel the community’s debate about the advantages and disadvantages of FFSs vs lower-level training devices. “Most of this hardware is about $35,000. We’ve also put together a proposal which is $60,000 and includes the computer, Varjo VR-3 headset, and other content.”

Talon Simulations is further able to have an easier entry level into the defense market, as the company also uses open-source SDKs (software development kits), and similar strategies to support the government customer.

Col. Dean Martin, 189th Airlift Wing commander, tests the Talon Strike simulator as Brandon Naids, CEO of Talon Simulations, provides instruction. Image credit: US Air National Guard/Major Casey Staheli.

While Talon Simulation is using HTC’s Vive Pro Eye headset in this instance, Naids noted past projects led to his company’s use of the Oculus, Varjo and other headsets, but beyond that, remains agnostic – seeking the best value product for each use case.

Kevin Mikalsen, BeBop Sensor’s Senior Business Development Manager for its Forte Data Gloves portfolio, joined the discussion and added that during the first iteration of the Strike platform’s development the team “went with as much commercial off-the-shelf, gaming-level equipment to apply and keep the cost down. That was one of the things that we really wanted to strive for.”

The quest for increased fidelity in the Strike includes another powerful notion – of increasing a part-task trainer’s motion performance options. While Strike’s younger product sibling, A3, has a 2-DOF motion base, Talon Simulations is bringing to the market space 3-, 4- and 6-DOF options for Strike with additional features, according to Naids. He noted, “These will be compact and affordable, relative to some of the large providers, and will provide haptics – the feelings and sensations of being in flight, starting from take-off. The tactile feedback you get in some of the controls, brings that next level of sensation, especially in aircraft where you have rudders and yokes, that you may have to ‘fight with’ to fly.”

BeBop’s haptic, hand-tracking gloves further enhance the platform’s tactile capability. Of significance, Naids recalled the haptic gloves have been the number one requested add-on since his company initially demonstrated its original platform prototype at 2014 I/ITSEC. BeBop Sensors’ haptic gloves are one part of the Strike platform’s mixed-reality experience.

The Talon Simulations-led industry team is bringing to bear other technology enablers. The technologies, in part, allow the training organization to more rigorously measure and record performance. A short list of these enablers includes AI and data analytics.

In one effort to expand the technology envelope, Quantum Interface’s advanced AI applications are allowing Talon Simulations with the Forte Haptic Glove to “predict, with confidence, where a person is moving his or her hand” in a Strike-supported scenario, Naids pointed out.

Jonathan Josephson, Quantum Interface’s Founder and CTO, added context to this capability, telling MS&T, “Our patented technology performs real-time vector analysis on the user’s interactions, causes the objects and environments to adapt intelligently in real time, and incorporates advanced AI to make the entire experience more accurate, faster, easier and smarter.” While the Austin, Texas-based technology firm perfected this technology in multiple environments, and proved its efficiency and effectiveness in USAF training environments, this is the first application for its offering in a motion simulator equipped with haptic gloves.

For its part, CyberDream has a rich heritage of commercial gaming and AR/VR competencies to offer Talon Simulations for this project. Sean Pinnock, the company’s CEO/Founder, spoke of one opportunity to take the training platform to a higher performance plateau, noting that while the Strike initiative’s next stage involves linking three like platforms, “there is nothing stopping us from having a fleet of aircraft in the future, as we build this out.”

Pinnock based this potential opportunity on one CyberDream game for entertainment on the market, which simultaneously connects hundreds of players around the globe. CyberDream is also reusing and repurposing a government-furnished model for current Strike mission scenarios, in essence allowing the Air Force customer to have a one-time cost for this content.

Goals for 2021 and Beyond

The Strike team’s roadmap for the remainder of 2021 includes a new version of BeBop’s Forte Data Gloves, adding force feedback, finger splaying, lower-profile haptics and a new side haptic on the index finger to better suit pilot needs in simulator training, according to Mikalsen. And there’s AI…again! The industry veteran continued, “AI is going to be a really big thing for us. Once we complete work with Quantum Interface this week and complete next week’s demonstrations, it will move the Air Force ‘to action’ to take up this piece of technology. And while the motion is good on the 2-DOF, the 6-DOF is where it is going to happen – that’s where there’s a ‘supernatural’ feeling.”

Talon Simulations is eyeing S&T opportunities in adjacent sectors to the defense market as well. One prospective use case for law enforcement and security applications would permit the training audience to exit the Strike training platform (in vehicle compartment configuration) and perform routine and crisis scenarios in an untethered environment.