Reconfigurable Operator Station Simulator (ROSS)

The Reconfigurable Operator Station Simulator (ROSS) project will provide designers of operator stations for Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) with a rapid prototyping system. In addition, the architecture on which ROSS is based provides a platform on which to build tools that increase the ability of operators to control UAVs and to impart a far greater understanding of the situation to them. The architecture consists of six modules: UAV simulator, UAV Control, Viewpoint and Tool Interface, HLA Simulation, Image Processing and Rendering, and Persistent Object Management. Major databases that will be created and managed include: real scene data captured from UAVs and elsewhere, virtual topography and terrain features, and persistent objects representing either "real" entities or simulated ones. One of the primary challenges of the project will be to integrate several open systems standards (Open GL, HLA, GCCS COE) to create a system that is extensible and appropriately leverages GOTS and COTS technologies. The purpose of Phase I is to perform the required systems analyses, define the architecture in detail, and to build and test a demonstration system (ROSS-QL) that will allow issues relating to the rapid prototyping and UAV control functions of ROSS to be examined experimentally. The Team of Defense Group Incorporated (DGI), Israeli Aircraft Industries International (IAII, an American Company), and VII is uniquely qualified to develop ROSS and to transition the technology to commercial applications.