L-3 Showcases Unmanned Aircraft Virtual Training and Augmented Reality System

L-3 Link Simulation & Training (L-3 Link) is showcasing Blue Box HD, a real-time network service that supports distributed virtual training or operations for any platform, in Booth 1000 at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) symposium in Washington, D.C. 

L-3’s Blue Box HD provides training realism and enables unprecedented unmanned aircraft operational situational awareness by augmenting a platform’s inherent limited field-of-view sensors with 360° of high fidelity virtual imagery. 

Application updates, video streaming, remote instructors or observers and user portal customization all can be controlled to support specific user requirements. Blue Box HD provides its real-time services through the use of standard secure internet protocols and plug-ins that allow for access anywhere an internet connection exists.

The L-3 Link unmanned aircraft virtual training demonstration will access geo-specific simulated environments, produced by L-3 Link’s HD World simulation product line, to display dynamic physics-based urban areas viewed across a full range of sensors. The physics-based content includes models for air and ground vehicles; weapons and threats; populations; man-made structures; and a full range of weather conditions.

“Use of Blue Box HD to securely distribute in real time a full range of HD World simulation technologies is blurring the lines between training, mission rehearsal and actual operational exercises” said Bob Birmingham, L-3 Link president. “In providing augmented reality to actual mission exercises unmanned aircrews now will be able to detect, track, suppress and destroy targets across a 360° field-of-view of the battlefield.”

In supporting actual operations, Blue Box HD is able to provide augmented visual information that is not available through an unmanned aircraft’s limited field-of-view sensors. Blue Box HD is able to provide the unmanned aircraft operator with a complete view of the battlefield, combining actual sensor imagery with high fidelity simulation produced by HD World.