STOTTLER HENKE ASSOCIATES, INC — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: AF161-039

Description

ABSTRACT: Personnel Recovery plays a very critical role in the success of military missions for both humanitarian and strategic reasons. Maintaining highly trained Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR) teams is of critical importance to the Air Force. Cost efficiency considerations demand the development of training solutions that provide high efficacy at lower costs. Game-based trainers have the potential to meet this demand. This proposal addresses the challenge of developing pedagogically sound and modular game-based trainers that can run on desktop or mobile computers and replicate the effectiveness of instructor-led training. We propose to develop a game-based system called Stratagems for training combat rescue helicopter aircrew. The modular design of Stratagems will enable the rapid customization of the trainer for different roles and skills. The trainer will provide automated feedback and coaching, including an augmented form of ShadowBox, a proven coaching technique that enables trainees to get an insight into and learn the decision-making processes and reasoning of experts. This will make Stratagems suitable for a variety of use cases such as classroom-based training, self-paced training, or just-in-time mission rehearsals. Phase I will result in detailed system design and the development of a limited, proof-of-concept prototype.; BENEFIT: This proposal fits in very well with the business plan for our organization. Game-based training has already established a foothold in the training market. This proposal allows us to offer an innovative advancement by incorporating the ShadowBox coaching approach to game-based training. Stottler Henke and ShadowBox LLC will be in a position to jointly market this technology to the commercial training sector. The approach is generalizable to many domains and could be particularly useful for training social skills such as customer service. It would also be greatly valuable to training civilians providing critical services such as law enforcement and emergency response. Training in search and rescue operations also has applicability in the civilian world, albeit the constraints and conditions faced by such operations are different.Even as Phase II proceeds, we will demonstrate the training systems to our contacts and to key decision makers in the Navy and the Army. Additionally, we have partnered in the past with large businesses such as Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman. We will demonstrate the technologies to our contacts within these organizations. We will continue to involve them during Phase II with the goal of providing them the resulting tools and technologies at the end of the effort.