COGNITIVE ASSESSMENT, SIMULATION, AND ENGINEERING LABORATORY (CASEL)

CASEL

The CASEL is a standalone behavioral research facility used to better understand and improve individual Soldier and team cognitive performance, and examine knowledge management in stressful, militarily relevant scenarios. CASEL uses video feed and interconnectivity with an observation/control room to centralize and control research activities between three test chambers, a simulated-tactical operations center (S-TOC), a human-robot teaming laboratory, and the unique immersive simulator.

 VirTra

Laboratory Features

  • Experimenters observe SoldierMultiple virtual and mixed-reality simulation environments
  • 3 sound attenuated test chambers that are optionally interconnected with pass-through connectors supporting varied analog and digital data formats
  • Remote observation and control room with a large projection screen and space to support multiple observers in a simulated mission control environment
  • Immersive 300 degree, interactive Hybrid Computer-Generated Imagery (HCGI) simulator (VirTra V-300)
  • Portable omni-directional treadmill
  • Varied physiological and behavioral data acquisition capabilities

 

Essential tools Enabling Flexible Study of Operational Performance

A key application area is research to support the human dynamics of mission command, tactical intelligence and cyber security: The observation/control room can represent a mission command center -- the test chambers provide isolated areas for members of lower echelon assets, the S-TOC can simulate the flow of information on the network-enabled battlefield, and the immersive simulator can represent the soldier on the ground.

ChamberThese areas allow ARL to represent the geographical dispersion that would occur in actual theater, and thus enable the study of distributed team performance in a network-enabled environment. Further, human-robot interaction studies, and research on new autonomous systems display and control devices are performed under controlled conditions in the test chambers.

Additionally we have the capability to pursue pioneering concepts like heterogenious  human-robot teaming to create autonomous teammates by training them to learn and adapt for indoor navigation and localization. The immersive VirTra simulator features tetherless simulated shooting and allows scenario construction for investigating a range of operational scenarios.

 

Soldier ParticipantAdopting a Multimodal Approach for Complex Inference

Other equipment includes "sensor shirts" which allow the collection of physiological variables, and a portable omni-directional treadmill which is linked to virtual reality devices and affords a variety of mixed reality scenarios.

 


In summary, the CASEL is a well-equipped, multiuse facility dedicated to cognitive research which enables ARL to be on the forefront of cognitive-based technology development, leading to enhanced Soldier performance across the full spectrum of military operations.