SONALYSTS INC — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: The DoD is facing significant challenges in training Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) crews

Description

The DoD is facing significant challenges in training Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) crews. At the same time that the popularity of RPAs is increasing and the need for qualified crews is skyrocketing, airspace restrictions and limitations in simulators are making it increasingly difficult to offer effective training opportunities. To help the DoD meet these challenges, Sonalysts and our teammates are proposing to develop the REmotely Piloted Aircraft Synthetic Tutor (REPAST). REPAST is based on three innovative pillars. First, the event-based approach to training provides a theoretically rigorous and empirically validated instructional foundation. Second, interactions with members of the broader Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) community will be simulated by synthetic agents that use natural language processing to communicate with RPA crew members. Third, intelligent tutoring techniques are used to assess performance, provide feedback, and control task saturation, scenario difficulty, and curriculum progression.