The Warfighter Human System Integration Laboratory seeks to develop and evaluate methods and technologies that support small teams during operations and in training.  Our goal is to produce systems capable of enhancing human/team performance through the appropriate use of advanced training and tactical technologies.  More broadly, we anticipate the development of measures of effective team training that are suitable for implementation in a wide variety of team-related activities.  Our current efforts focus primarily on Marine Corps dismounted infantry training and tactical performance. 

Specifically, we are: 

• Conducting research into the behavioral and physiological correlates of effective team interactions and team training,
• Using this knowledge to derive new technologies and new principles for effective team training,
• Evaluating current state of the art virtual reality technologies for their utility in team training systems, and
• Demonstrating practical implementations of new technologies and training principles to those responsible for determining and implementing training programs.
  

Hypotheses currently under investigation include:

• Virtual environment interfaces providing greater immersive experiences will enhance team training effectiveness,
• Real-time physiological monitoring can be utilized to regulate the user’s level of arousal and to control the user’s level of focused attention in a way that will enhance skill learning,
• Effective team performance will be correlated with both behavioral and physiological measures of coordination/cohesion between individual team members,
• Off the shelf nutritional supplements will enhance tactical decision making in exercise fatigued and heat exposed warfighters, and
• Automated (non-pharmaceutical) systems for reducing motion sickness in command and control vehicles will enhance operator cognitive and tactical performance.

Our specific efforts will enable those in need to distinguish useful applications of these technologies and approaches from ineffectual implementations.  Our findings may also find use in the areas of personnel selection and assessment for fitness of duty.

POC:

Head, Warfighter Human System Integration Laboratory

Code 5510

Naval Research Laboratory
Washington DC 20375
(202) 767-3960 fax: (202) 767-3172
email: whsil@aic.nrl.navy.mil