Conduit #3

CONDUIT

SERAPIS SIMULATION AND SYNTHETIC ENVIRONMENTS NEWSLETTER

ISSUE THREE, SPRING 2021

TURNING UP THE HEAT ON VIRTUAL REALITY TRAINING

‘TEAMS’ WORK HAS MADE THE SERAPIS SSE DREAM WORK conduit / spring 2021 / SERAPIS SSE

2

While the once weekly sound of UK households “clapping for carers” has long since fallen silent and the hubbub of home-schooling is finally set to subside, SERAPIS SSE’s community of practice will not be muting its microphones any time soon.

of virtual exchanges, attracting strength in numbers and enabling many remote delegates (in the pre-coronavirus sense) – from as far afield as Scotland, Ireland, Sweden and Germany – to attend.

Hosting events online is, of course, not

Throughout the pandemic, Zoom and Teams have emerged as tools of necessity with even the most reluctant to embrace remote working becoming at ease with the etiquette and efficiencies of virtual meetings.

In the true spirit of Lot 5 of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory’s SERAPIS framework, technology has triumphed and enabled our members to forge ahead with a diverse range of tasks and deliver more than £3 million of research.

The ability afforded by the software for geographically dispersed teams to continue to collaborate – despite Covid19’s best efforts to keep us apart – has been invaluable in our collective efforts to advance and exploit next-generation Simulation and Synthetic Environments and will undoubtedly endure as part of whatever “new normal” 2021 has in store.

Our two most recent community of practice events further underlined the value

without its limitations – particularly given SERAPIS SSE now boasts 74 member organisations – and we are acutely aware of the need to supplement briefing activities with greater opportunities to network so that the community can easier apply its expertise to some of the lot’s longer-term programmes.

A number of task-specific workshops, including one for the Collective Training Transformation Programme Test and Reference capability (see pages 4-5), have already been held and – shortly before this issue of Conduit was published – we arranged an event to allow for a selection of our cohort to cross brief each other on their capabilities.

More will follow and other ideas that have been discussed with a view to encouraging interaction include break-out rooms at the next community of practice event in May and utilising speed dating-style software

MOST REQUESTED AREAS OF EXPERTISE: 1. APPLICATION OF AI AND DATA SCIENCE, 2. VIRTUAL SIMULATION, 3. LIVE/ SYNTHETIC INTEGRATION NSC – SERAPIS SSE LEAD Web: qinetiq.com Email: message@nsc.co.uk Tel: +44 1276 678 867 Write: River View, 2 Meadows Business Park, Camberley, Surrey, GU17 9AB

74 STRONG MEMBERSHIP PUBLISHED BY TYLERBALE COMMUNICATIONS Email: info@tylerbale.co.uk Tel: 01252 714 870 Write: 10 Borelli Yard, Farnham, Surrey GU9 7NU Content © NSC 2021. All rights reserved.

that randomly matches two attendees for a five-minute chat.

On the subject of change, many of you will have noted that NSC, the SERAPIS SSE lot lead, was acquired by QinetiQ Group last year. So what does this mean for the future of the framework and your involvement in it? In brief, not a great deal.

Business will continue as usual. Although QinetiQ is responsible for running two further SERAPIS lots, SSE will remain a separate entity and continue to operate – under the same leadership team – as it has previously. Contracts and contacts are as you were!

Another constant is our drive to continually improve and adapt the SERAPIS SSE operating model to deliver genuine innovation and “out of the box” thinking.

£3,000,000+ OF RESEARCH DELIVERED

plan and, we hope, providing additional time for Expressions of Interest responses.

The chaos caused by coronavirus has certainly led to a rather manic end to the financial year and some of the turnaround times have been far tighter than the minimum two weeks we would wish to provide. Rest assured we share your pain and a more measured pace is very much on the agenda.

Despite such difficulties and demanding deadlines, SERAPIS SSE continues to deliver successfully and to push boundaries and frontiers in support of our partners.

Video conferencing calls may have been the principal channel of communication used to achieve this, but the credit rests firmly with the professionalism, dedication and determination of the people logging on.

A huge thank you to you all for your continued endeavours.

Enjoy the issue. – Steve Yates, SERAPIS SSE Programme Director (NSC)

14 18 NON-TRADITIONAL DEFENCE SUPPLIERS HAVE SIGNED UP TO SERVE SERAPIS SSE

NUMBER OF ACADEMIA ON FRAMEWORK

4C Strategies; aditerna GmbH; Agility3 Limited; Aleph Insights; Arctic Shores Limited; Arke; ATLAS ELEKTRONIK UK Ltd; BAE Maritime Services; BMT; Bright HF; C3 Systems Consulting Ltd; C3IA Solutions Limited; CACI Ltd; CAE; CENTRIC; Cervus Defence; CGI Cineon Training; Collins Aerospace; Committed Software; Cordillera; CU Services; Cyber-Human Lab; D3A Defence; Daden Limited; Deep Blue C Technology Ltd; Devstars; Dudley Consulting; Durham University; Elbit Systems UK Ltd; Epic Games; Ferranti Technologies; Fleetonomy.ai; Helyx; HuSys; Inzpire; iTrinegy; LiMETOOLS; Lockheed Martin UK; Mass Consultants Ltd; Modux Ltd; Montvieux Limited; Myriad Global Media; Nova Systems UK; Pitch Technologies Ltd; PLEXSYS UK; Polystream (Elektraglide T/A); Pulse Power & Measurement Ltd; QinetiQ; Raytheon UK; Red Scientific; Riskaware Ltd; Rowden Technologies; SEA; Sim155; SimCentric; Simutec Systems; Slitherine; Telespazio VEGA UK Ltd; THALES UK; Turbulent FS; University of Exeter; University of Newcastle upon Tyne; Varjo; Vedette Consulting; VRAI; Xewli

3

Some of our recent work with Dstl has highlighted the importance of diversity and inclusion in that process. Those organisations embracing these tenets within their teams have been shown to be more innovative and collaborative. With this in mind, we are currently working to develop a set of diversity and inclusion principles for application across the SERAPIS SSE community. More communication on this will come shortly.

Also evolving – as a result of community feedback – is our understanding of the task pipeline, which is allowing us all to better

conduit / spring 2021 / SERAPIS SSE

VIDEO CONFERENCING CALLS MAY HAVE BEEN THE PRINCIPAL CHANNEL OF COMMUNICATION USED TO ACHIEVE THIS, BUT THE CREDIT RESTS FIRMLY WITH THE PROFESSIONALISM, DEDICATION AND DETERMINATION OF THE PEOPLE LOGGING ON

Led by simulation specialist NSC, SERAPIS SSE welcomes members from industry and academia and is open for taskings. To join those already part of our community of practice (listed below) or discuss placing a task, email SERAPIS_SSE@nsc.co.uk

4 conduit / spring 2021 / SERAPIS SSE

SERAPIS SSE’s community of practice called upon to help sort through the pieces of a test and reference capability fit for the Forces

Words: Andy Simms, NSC Pictures: Crown copyright

IT was somewhat befitting that as UK sales of jigsaws topped the £100 million mark towards the tail end of 2020, a SERAPIS SSE project team sat down to begin tackling a significant-sized puzzle of its own.

However, in sharp contrast to the time taken to reassemble a seaside scene to seek solace from social-distancing restrictions, the task of piecing together a picture of a test and reference capability to support continuous innovation for the Army’s Future Collective Training System will occupy minds for more than a year.

And de-risking the

implementation of such a facility – or suite of facilities – as part of the Collective Training Transformation Programme is a brain-teaser made all the more challenging by the increasingly-complex threats faced by Britain’s Armed Forces.

It is the Army’s mission for training to become a surrogate for warfare; driving adaptation, generating combat ethos, empowering commanders and delivering novel tactics by encompassing upgraded urban exercise areas and virtual and synthetic environments, and forming part of an assured and responsive lessons loop.

CALL TO ARMS An alliance with the best of industry will undoubtedly assist in achieving this but finding what fits where is a problem that will take many heads to resolve, according to NSC’s Ed Pawsey, the project manager tasked with generating the evidence that will allow Dstl and the Army to develop the requirements for – or design of – the test and reference capability that will subsequently be delivered.

“This is not an activity intended for a single contractor, this is all about SERAPIS SSE’s entire community of practice,” he told Conduit. “The project team is effectively a fishing

those effectively by turning those elements into a service that can support multiple training environments and multiple training activities?”

Whatever the ultimate form of the test and reference capability adopted by the British Army, the SERAPIS SSE team is focused on ensuring it delivers a raft of benefits. These include enabling allies and industry to approach, trial and innovate new systems

better analysis, coordination and planning.”

and services to assist in faster iterative development; providing a means to conduct performance and integration testing and acceptance and installation of incoming capabilities; optimising technical training design and de-risking execution; promoting in-house innovation; and being a reference catalogue of performance, standards and settings. It is quite a wish list, but fortunately the test and reference puzzle does have some easily identifiable pieces.

Highlighting the individual proficiencies of established – but geographically dispersed – repositories such as the Defence Simulation Centre, Land Warfare Centre and Land Systems Reference Centre, Daran concluded: “It is too early to say what the final picture will look like. It may be a cluster of capabilities, a hub-and-spoke approach with various centres of excellence, but there is a jigsaw puzzle that needs to be put together and the jigsaw may prove to be bigger than first imagined. What matters is finding a solution that forges strong enough links between existing assets to create an intuitive and accessible system that delivers collective training in the most efficient and effective way.”

TESTING TASK

net – we need the knowledge and expertise of a wide array of people and are here to listen to all voices as opposed to just the loudest. Collaboration will be key to the success of any test and reference capability and we want all those with the necessary skills and experience to assert their influence within their respective fields and assist us in gathering and testing the evidence to prove or disprove methodologies.”

Building on preliminary studies, phase two of the ambitious project will deliver a capability concept demonstrator to showcase how the siloed-approach often associated with the Services may ultimately be replaced by a physical and digital repository of best practice.

“You may have one organisation conducting a

WE WANT ALL THOSE WITH THE NECESSARY SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE TO ASSERT THEIR INFLUENCE WITHIN THEIR RESPECTIVE FIELDS AND ASSIST US IN GATHERING AND TESTING THE EVIDENCE TO PROVE OR DISPROVE METHODOLOGIES Ed Pawsey NSC

Daran Crush, the technical lead for the project, agreed that smashing the traditional “stove pipes” that separate entities within the military and industry through the creation of deployable and fixed test and reference facilities would enhance the effectiveness of training in the short- and longterm.

“There is a whole lump of testing that needs to go on as programmes move through their life,” he said. “For example, a Future Combined Arms Tactical Trainer is on the cards and it will need to mirror the complexity of operations and that complexity needs to be tested as part the acceptance process to ensure that whichever contractor is going to deliver the capability is actually going to be able to do what is required. An enhanced testing capability could help you do that.

“We have seen technology and the way that simulation systems can be designed move away from stove pipes,” he added. “There are nuggets of functionality that can be relevant across multiple training environments, so why not use

conduit / spring 2021 / SERAPIS SSE

Daran Crush QinetiQ

piece of collective training but beyond the impact of that actual training on those participating, all of the data and metrics involved are not necessarily reprocessed to inform the training gaps of others, training trends or a more complex iteration of the same exercise,” Ed added.

“A test and reference capability could address this – acting as an accessible repository that would allow for

5

FEATURE

conduit / spring 2021 / SERAPIS SSE

6

STAGE CRAFT

Conduit catches up with the SERAPIS SSE showman turning up the heat on virtual reality training IT IS not by virtue of improvisation that high production values top the bill at SERAPIS SSE supplier RiVR – a firm specialising in the creation of photo-realistic virtual reality environments.

With actor, playwright and producer featuring among the many credits on his CV, the company’s managing director Bradley Woodward takes the role of satisfying training audiences as seriously as he does entertaining theatre crowds.

Since setting up the firm in 2017 and first using 360-degree video techniques to tempt TUI customers to consider a cruise Words: Andy Simms, NSC Pictures: Courtesy of RiVR

around the Caribbean, the teacher of speech and drama at Trinity College London has helped organisations to use a very modern medium to stage realistic scenes that accelerate the retention and application of knowledge.

RiVR, for example, has designed a system to support the training of fire investigators that uses VR headsets to immerse trainees in a range of photo-realistic scenarios.

Within the simulation (pictured opposite), users can look and interact with their high-fidelity surroundings and access an array of familiar tools, such as a torch, camera, dictaphone and gas testing device, to assist them in ascertaining the cause of fire.

They are observed throughout by an instructor, who can track and record every action for later review, and the data captured

FEATURE

by the trainees themselves can be subsequently used to assess performance or as evidence towards competency for accreditation.

to a fire ignited by a fallen candle.

Post blaze, these scenes are then recorded using laser scans and thousands of photographs and transformed into an interactive environment using photogrammetry and other advanced 3D modelling techniques.

“When you go into our VR scenes it is difficult to tell the difference from the real thing because they are photorealistic,” Bradley continued.

“We can even emulate sniffer dogs as we bring them onto our sets and record their reactions, which can then be watched during a scenario.”

Authenticity also has a lead role to play in the company’s

WHEN YOU GO INTO OUR VR SCENES IT IS DIFFICULT TO TELL THE DIFFERENCE FROM THE REAL THING BECAUSE THEY ARE PHOTO-REALISTIC Bradley Woodward Managing Director, RiVR

conduit / spring 2021 / SERAPIS SSE

Unsurprisingly for a director who has brought more than 30 productions to the stage, Bradley believes the efficacy of the hi-tech training aide, RiVR Investigate, is attributable to the attention to detail his team affords to dressing their digital sets.

“The way in which fire investigators train is the same the world over,” he told Conduit.

“They take a shipping container, dress it with plasterboard and wallpaper, furnish it, set fire to it and then extinguish the flames with hoses.

“Trainees are then invited in and asked to establish the cause of fire. It’s an expensive way to train, is not ecologically friendly and is limited in terms of how many times it can be used before the evidence degrades or is contaminated.

“For RiVR Investigate, we did the same but through technology our scenes can be repeatedly used,” he added, explaining how controlled burns can recreate everything from acts of arson and shortcircuiting electrical appliances

7

SETTING THE SCENE

new crime scene investigation training tool, which is due for launch at the end of May and exploits the relative freedoms of virtual reality to expose users to otherwise hard to rehearse for situations.

METHOD ACTOR As a former detective-turnedtechnological innovator, it is a product Bradley is particularly excited to see come to fruition.

“Our forensic investigation tool is instructor led,” added the qualified hypnotherapist and hypno-analyst.

“Rather than being a fixed scene, the customer is able to create their own scenarios just like a theatre production.

“Having experience of both

8 conduit / spring 2021 / SERAPIS SSE

police work and drama it is hard not to feel that all my previous paths have led to this point and that I am in the right place at the right time. I want VR to be

about desensitising people and making it more difficult for them to be shocked, because that is a natural reaction to such scenes, but we can prepare them to

used as a force for good and not just gaming.”

With RiVR’s past projects including a synthetic environment tailored to help train emergency service personnel to recognise the signs of homemade explosive manufacture, Bradley is a firm believer that casting extended reality for grittier roles brings clear benefits.

“As humans we experience the world rather than watching it and in order to change behaviours we need to change the memory bank,” he explained, advocating the use of highfidelity visuals. “I joined the police as an 18-year-old and very early on in my career found myself in a hotel bedroom with a body and severed arm on the floor. For someone who hadn’t seen more blood than a nose bleed before it was a shock and what VR allows us to do is better prepare people for these situations. It is not

react more pragmatically.”

Unsurprisingly, Bradley also sees a bright future for RiVR in the arts with its modelling techniques well suited to transference to the world of visual special effects.

The theatre director cited Disney’s The Mandalorian – which used a combination of digital matte technology and LED projection panels to bring alien landscapes alive on set – as having set a new trend for television and film production.

“We are talking to a number of production houses because the old way of doing business is no longer sustainable and hard to justify,” he said. “Movies traditionally need multiple site visits for each location before filming can even begin but you don’t need to do that any more.

“For example, we could capture every room within Downton Abbey in high fidelity and that could be used instead of a recce or even as part of a

production itself. It’s much cheaper and a far more environmentally friendly way of working.”

While VR has the potential to enhance the sustainability of on-screen entertainment, its continued evolution will not ultimately lead to a final curtain for theatre, according to Bradley.

“As Covid has proven, people want to be in the same room as each other and to experience the same thing at the same time,” the technologicallyminded thespian, who owns a performing arts school in Leicestershire, concluded. “Our RiVR Link system synchronises headsets enabling joint remote virtual training and development experiences anywhere in the world. This is exceptionally powerful but even we cannot replace that live buzz of the theatre.”