Unmanned ground and aerial vehicles will have to operate in different configurations and under diverse conditions in the military arena. Simulation is indispensable for evaluating scenarios, gaining experience and training personnel efficiently and safely. This urgent need was addressed in the Outdoor Tactical Robotic Autonomous System Simulation Capacity (OTRASSC) project. We developed a hybrid simulator to combine the best of the physical and the virtual world for creating a realistic environment and experience.

Our simulator comprises a server and various physical components. On the simulation server, tactical scenarios can be played out in real time in a kind of digital twin of the military training area. The physical components include outdoor remote controllers and GPS trackers. The remote controllers are used for running the simulated unmanned systems and reading out data from sensors and cameras. The GPS trackers, attached to opposing forces moving around the physical training area, provide the data to display them in the virtual training area.