NAVY NEWS, OCTOBER 2008 21
● Inside a British nuclear submarine with SubSafe
● A virtual Whitsand Bay
● Inside the LR5 rescue submarine
GAMES and serious aren’t even hun- dreds, old report.
kickdown, because by the time
words that you see linked
of thousands of pounds “They introduced us to a
they’ve recalled it, they’ve wasted
● LR5 fi nds its way to a stricken submarine
too often.
in virtual reality technology and small company in Shaftesbury
a fair amount of ordnance into the
But at the University of
never want to touch the stuff called Incredible Box. Together
sea and got to get back on track.”
Birmingham, Professor Robert
again, and we’re trying to produce we’ve produced this demonstra-
The gun fires a distinctive
Stone is leading a small team
demonstrators that help de-risk tion for the Submarine School
‘hosepipe’ trail as the virtual bul-
looking at serious gaming, writes
the selection process. called SubSafe.
lets hit the virtual
Helen Craven.
“If it works – great, they can “SubSafe is
“We assume they water. The splash-
There’s more than enough
go out for tender to be built. If it everything we know how to use a
es aren’t right yet,
newspapers out there bemoaning
doesn’t, it costs nothing.” hoped to do for
hypodermic. They’ve
I’m told, they
the ‘Playstation Generation’ – but
Prof Stone himself has a back- FOSM back in
got to make the right
need to be bigger,
last year Chief of the General Staff
ground in virtual reality, but is the 1990s, but
decisions to save this
and create more
Gen Sir Richard Dannatt praised
absolutely frank about its failings: couldn’t because
virtual guy’s life.”
visual disturbance
the abilities of the Playstation gen-
“Expensive and unreliable tech- of the effort, the
around the exact
eration and their ability to han-
nology – just didn’t work. software tools, the computers
site of the bullet entry.
dle the gritty bloody conflict of
“So when I came to the univer- were prohibitively expensive.
Fortunately submarines are not
Afghanistan and Iraq.
sity I decided that if we’re going to “We have demonstrated it at
often lost on the sea-bed, but the
There is a wave
do something that Devonport and Faslane; and it has
Navy’s rescue submersibles such
of people joining
“The jury is still out as
is really going to received some accolades. Even the
as the LR5 or the new NATO
the Services who to how effective this
make a difference, surface fleet is looking at it now.”
submarine rescue system still
have grown up in form of simulation is”
it’s got to work And so the next six months will
have to be trained and ready to
a world of chal-
on pretty humble see this interactive 3D software
respond.
lenges generated within computer
laptops, and it’s got to be devel- being put to the test by real sub-
Once again the team in
● Medical decision-based training in a virtual world
games, and the scientists and psy-
oped using software that can be
mariners in Devonport.
Birmingham are able to use exist-
chologists of the Human Factors
distributed more-or-less free of
It doesn’t take long for the mind
ing games technologies to create
Integration Defence Technology
charge, otherwise no one is going
to adjust to the virtual world,
a realistic portrayal of a stricken
Centre (HFI DTC) are looking
to use it.”
particularly when such meticulous
submarine emerging from the
into ways to harness that learn-
Before joining their first sub-
care has been taken to measure,
murky gloom of the seabed.
ing experience into valuable tools
marines, junior submariners are
record and photograph the reality.
Birmingham’s Rob Guest has
for the country’s Armed Forces,
taken through a course of lectures
SubSafe uses freely available
developed new techniques and
including the Royal Navy.
and briefings in Plymouth to learn
games software, and allows users
effects to recreate the distortions
There is, of course, no substi-
their way around and know where
to move smoothly around the
of light and bubble trails, the
tute for the real thing.
safety equipment can be found.
decks of the submarine, through
pull of currents and the push of
You want to explore the interior
They sit in a classroom before
hatches and into compartments,
motors, the onboard cameras of
of a British nuclear submarine? Of
lectures and slides, with models
finding their way to alarm switch-
the virtual submarine appearing
course, you want to clamber down
and cutaways discussed before
es and safety kit such as fire extin-
on the virtual screens of the virtual
inside one and see for yourself.
their eyes.
guishers.
interior.
Want to fire a minigun? Then
In the next six months, if cur-
Another demonstrator being
The realm of defence medicine
yes, ideally you’re stood on the
rent evaluation trials go well,
developed in Birmingham is the
is also within the HFI DTC’s eye,
upper deck of a grey ship firing future submariners will look at Dillon minigun trainer, complete
and here the focus is on decision
real ammunition at real targets. their computer screens and move with a realistic grip to mirror the
training – making the right choices
But that’s not always possible – smoothly around inside the virtual real gun’s controls.
in the right time as the pres-
for reasons of geography, timing, world of the submarine under a “The most important piece of
sure piles on, which is where the
cost, and global commitments. new project, SubSafe. the human factors work is this
appearance, sounds and distrac-
And so the potential of games SubSafe actu-
“I decided that if manual interface,
tions of a realistic environment
technology that can be loaded on ally grew out getting used to
are key to putting the user into the
we’re going to do
to a desktop PC is being unlocked of some initial the handling, the
thick of the action.
something that is
at Birmingham by Professor work done for firing, the dials
Prof Stone said: “We’ve been
Stone and his lead developer Rob Flag Officer
really going to make a
and whatever,”
working with the Royal Centre
Guest. Submarines back
difference, it’s got to
remarked Prof
for Defence Medicine, looking at
Some of it is simply about in the 1990s,
work on pretty humble
Stone.
whether or not the serious games
teaching familiarity and cor- when the profes- laptops” Press the trigger
concept can work for training sur-
rect procedure, some of it about sor was involved on a minigun and
geons going over to Afghanistan
managing expectation, some of it in developing the gun simulators there’s a slight half-second delay
for procedures that they’re not
about recognising access is limited at HMS Collingwood. – it’s not much but it’s enough to
normally familiar with.
to the real thing but people still “We did some feasibility studies disorientate for a moment.
“They’re in a virtual field hos-
need the training. for FOSM, who came to us and “When trainees press that but-
pital tent or on board RFA Argus,
“Everything we do is driven by said: ‘Do you think you can use ton for the first time and nothing
and it’s a decision trainer, not
the human,” stresses Prof Stone. this virtual reality to help people happens, even for half a second,
a skills trainer. We assume they
“The jury is still out as to become more spatially aware of they think ‘what’s happening
know how to use a cannula or a
how effective this form of simula- the layout of SSN and SSBN?’ So here?’ and they relax,” he added.
hypodermic. They’ve got to make
tion is,” he added. “We are try- we said we would look at it. “Then the weapon kicks down.
the right decisions within four and
ing to interest people in getting “About two and a half years And that’s what we’ve been trying
a half minutes to save this virtual
involved, trying to placate those ago, the guys at Abbey Wood got to recreate.
guy’s life.
people who invested many tens, in touch with us and asked for that “We’re still working on that
“There is a continuum of train-
ing technologies here. At one end
we’ve got decision-based training, ● Firing the minigun simulator
and at the other end we’ve got
basic skills training.
“And what we’ve found is that
for skills trainers you don’t need
to be rigorous about what the
scenario looks like, you can use
simple graphics backed up with
realistic interfaces, like the mini-
gun.
“When you move on to decision
making, we need to pay much
more attention to the simulated
sights and sounds, because that
will influence the next decision.
“For medical training, that
decision needs to be right first
time, every time.”
Towards that end, Prof Stone
can’t wait to start using his lat-
est off-the-shelf discovery, a piece
of hardware that brings realistic
● A virtual Scylla on the seabed, a project that is being worked on with the National Marine Aquarium
and the Marine Biological Association
smells to the training simulation.
● A virtual torpedo room
Parfum de submarine, anyone?
0021_NN_0ct08.indd 121_NN_0ct08.indd 1 118/9/08 15:30:358/9/08 15:30:35
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