Synthetic Environments

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Governments and defense forces are increasingly looking to high performance synthetic environments to accomplish more of their training, mission rehearsal and decision support requirements. Training devices such as flight simulators have traditionally required a variety of different and unique databases to provide a synthetic representation of the world. Having many unique databases for each simulation system, however, creates a number of challenges, such as correlating the databases or making rapid changes to the databases to support training and mission rehearsal requirements.

CAE has developed an approach and architecture for database publication called the common database (CDB). The CDB is a shared, open and public database that defines a single synthetic representation of the world, and all simulation systems use the same database – the CDB. The CDB is used as a run-time data repository from which the various simulation clients simultaneously retrieve relevant information to perform their respective run-time simulation tasks. The bottom line result is that with the CDB, the creation, modification and correlation of run-time databases can take minutes or hours instead of days, weeks or months. Just as importantly, these changes can be made very rapidly using the latest intelligence and source data available.

Since the completion of the original contracts under which the CDB was developed, the CDB specification has been maintained and updated by an industry-led board. In early 2015, it was decided to submit the CDB to the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC®), an independent, international consensus-based standards development organization, for their consideration as an eventual OGC standard. In September 2016, the OGC formally approved the CDB as a standard and it is now referred to as the OGC CDB. The adoption of the CDB as an OGC standard brings together the geospatial intelligence and modelling and simulation industries to establish greater interoperability in the use of geospatial data.

Militaries are turning to cost-effective alternatives such as the use of simulation and synthetic environments to prepare their personnel for analysis, training and mission rehearsal, and operational decision-making.

CAE has developed the CAE Dynamic Synthetic Environment (DSE) that aims to create and maintain a virtual synthetic environment that more accurately and realistically simulates the real world. Based on the Open Geospatial Consortium Common Database (OGC CDB), CAE’s DSE enables defense forces to train and acquire critical skills in a constantly changing and evolving synthetic environment. CAE’s DSE allows for the real-time modification of the database as it responds to actions taken by players interacting with the synthetic environment, environmental effects, or by computer-generated entities in the scenario. CAE had four primary objectives guiding the development of the CAE Dynamic Synthetic Environment:

• Dynamic – the synthetic environment database had to have the ability to change anywhere in the world in real-time without advance preparation;  
• Persistence – once the synthetic environment changes as a result of any interaction with the synthetic environment, such as weather or a bomb detonating, those changes had to “persist” in real-time; 
• Scalable – the synthetic environment needed to support single users on a mobile or laptop-based system all the way up to large, distributed live-virtual-constructive federations;  
• Open – the underlying database architecture had to be based on an open specification to enforce correlation and interoperability. 

Because CAE’s Dynamic Synthetic Environment is based on the OGC CDB, the issues of database correlation and interoperability are eliminated, thus saving time, money and effort. Importantly, all synthetic environment content can be shared across all domains – air, land, maritime, or joint. By using CAE’s DSE, defense forces can improve training, mission planning and rehearsal, and operational decision-making because the synthetic environment is more realistic and more accurately simulate the real world.

The CAE Medallion-6000MR is the latest member of CAE's powerful Medallion image generator family and was developed with full support for the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) CDB (formally known as Common Database).  CAE's Medallion-6000MR image generator builds on the proven features and performance of CAE's long-standing Medallion-6000 family of image generator solutions tailored for the military market. CAE's Medallion-6000MR leverages the latest commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) graphics processors and includes enhanced features aimed at supporting a highly realistic and immersive synthetic environment for a variety of applications. 

The CAE Medallion-6000MR image generator provides the following new features and training benefits:

• Support for the OGC CDB standard enabling more accurate terrain profile and enhanced local terrain features such as rivers and roads;
• Enhanced overall image quality and scene density capabilities with detailed synthetic environments and realistic night scenes for greater training realism and fidelity;
• Realistic 3D ocean, wakes and ocean to shore simulation with enhanced whitecap and water illumination effects for improved overall visual cueing;
• Updated scene densities for runways, taxiways, airport contaminants, aprons and terminal buildings delivering unmatched airport realism;
• Ability to modify OGC CDB synthetic environments at run-time to change the terrain dynamically (CAE Dynamic Synthetic Environment);
• Ideally suited for collective and distributed mission operations training (DMO);
• High-end sensor simulation capabilities.

CAE's Medallion-6000MR includes the rich feature set the Medallion family has pioneered for air applications, including fast jet, tanker/transport aircraft and rotary wing visual training, as well as features that make the CAE Medallion-6000MR ideal for creating realistic, immersive synthetic environments for land, naval and public safety applications.