{"id":240532,"date":"2019-06-04T09:27:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-04T16:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=blog&#038;p=240532"},"modified":"2022-08-23T23:39:24","modified_gmt":"2022-08-24T06:39:24","slug":"us-navy-puts-tactical-tools-to-the-test","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/blog\/us-navy-puts-tactical-tools-to-the-test","title":{"rendered":"US Navy Puts Tactical Tools to the Test"},"author":5252,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","transcript_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","castos_file_data":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[791,801],"tags":[362122,362132,362112,276792],"industry":[],"esri-blog-category":[478532],"esri_blog_department":[478242],"class_list":["post-240532","blog","type-blog","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-digital-transformation","category-operational-intelligence","tag-common-operational-picture","tag-integration","tag-interoperability","tag-military","esri-blog-category-analytics","esri_blog_department-public-safety"],"acf":{"video_source":"","video_start":"","video_stop":"","short_description":"The US Navy achieved plug-and-play integration with many sensors speaking the same language and serving inputs into a GIS.","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<em>Part 1 of 3 Detailing the US Navy\u2019s Innovation Battle Lab<\/em>"},{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","layout":"standard","image_reference":null,"image_reference_figure":"","spotlight_image":null,"section_title":"","spotlight_name":"","position":"Right","content":"Key Takeaways\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Warfighters use GIS to integrate information inputs from sensors and drones.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>A common operational picture tracks locations and movements.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Flexible technology makes it easy to stand up purpose-driven apps.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>","snippet":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"The US Navy\u2019s annual Innovation Battle Lab, brings together more than 700 people from special operations, intelligence, and law enforcement to test and try the latest technologies in live combat-simulation scenarios. Over the course of two weeks, they run more than 250 experiments. The event is unique in how it flexibly addresses the needs of operational activities.\r\n\r\nWhile this event has many pre-defined scenarios, it\u2019s mostly about bringing together Operators, Analysts, and Technicians. Together these teams validate new gear and technologies\u2014judging for effectiveness and applicability to operations.\r\n\r\n\u201cPart of the beauty of this is that we just don\u2019t know what we\u2019re going to get,\u201d said the lead interoperability engineer. \u201cWe create a canvas where capabilities and people with great ideas can come together and make magic happen.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe event mixes and matches technologies and outside technologists with \u201cexperiment to failure\u201d as the mantra.\r\n\r\n\u201cThey really try to push the limits,\u201d said Jim Bennett, an Esri expert on naval special operations. \u201cPush it until you break it. If you break it, let's fix it and keep pushing it.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe constant problem solving, the exposure to leading-edge technologies, and the mission-driven testing that clearly marks progress against objectives, make for eager participants at the event. The days go quickly, and the cycle of compiling lessons learned and preparing for the next Innovation Battle Lab continues year-round."},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<strong>Drones Capture Basemap Imagery<\/strong>\r\n\r\nMilitary adages frame each operation. The five Ps, for example, remind teams that proper preparation prevents poor performance. In the collaborative and fast-paced environment of the Innovation Battle Lab, participants vet technology against such truisms, looking for better ways to collect, analyze, and share information in rapidly changing scenarios.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe warfighter needs to know where they are and where the enemy is,\u201d the lead interoperability engineer said. \u201cBeing able to get the right data to the right place at the right time is the bottom line.\u201d\r\n\r\nUnderstanding the \u201cwhere\u201d component requires an up-to-date map. To achieve this, participants set a pre-event priority of collecting high-resolution imagery and elevation data using a professional-grade drone to create a basemap within a geographic information system (GIS).\r\n\r\n\u201cWe collected the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/arcgis\/products\/imagery-remote-sensing\/drone-mapping\">drone data<\/a> like a surveyor collects their data,\u201d said William Shuart, GIS coordinator, drone operator, and professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. \u201cThis involves setting up in the right location, using a GPS unit to log precise location data, setting up ground control points, making flight plans with overlap, and collecting vantage points of objects from at least two different angles.\u201d\r\n\r\nCollecting imagery over a 2,000-acre target area took a full day, five flights, and resulted in 7,000 captured images.\r\n\r\n\u201cDrones have a specific job, to collect imagery,\u201d Shuart said. \u201cBecause they\u2019re so advanced, it allows us to get a really good picture of an entire landscape really quickly.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe imagery was then processed using\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/arcgis\/products\/drone2map\/overview\">Drone2Map for ArcGIS<\/a>, which automates the production of 2D and 3D imagery products to fuel rapid analysis and visualization. Specialized workflows guided the review of imagery captured in each flight.\r\n\r\n\u201cIf you did all that stuff right and you have good GPS data, then you can get really good spatial accuracy,\u201d Shuart said. \u201cThat\u2019s really the goal, because we're going to feed the orthophoto, the photo point cloud, and the 3D mesh into a GIS to bring it together with other data, create web scenes, and do advanced analytics.\u201d"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":240812,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<strong>Sensors Fill Information Gaps<\/strong>\r\n\r\nSensors can be used to fill intelligence gaps\u2014the known unknowns. The Innovation Battle Lab makes use of airborne and waterborne sensors that capture imagery or use radar and other wavelengths the human eye cannot detect.\r\n\r\nA growing class of sensors are unattended ground sensors, which employ sensing modes such as seismic, acoustic, magnetic, and infrared to detect the presence of people or vehicles. These sensors detect and relay signals via radio frequency or satellite communications to personnel in the field and to a central command. Often the signals are displayed on a map to give geographic context.\r\n\r\nMany on-the-ground sensors are deployed during the Innovation Battle Lab. To assist in tracking and managing these valuable and sometimes pricey assets, the team found a way to track the location and owner of each sensor.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe set up a form to collect contact details and plot sensor placement on the map,\u201d said Bennett. \u201cEach sensor gets a barcode that can be scanned to reveal contact details. It also set in place a system to notify when and where sensors are deployed and recovered.\u201d\r\n\r\n<strong>Easing Technology Integration<\/strong>\r\n\r\nAnother high-priority pre-event activity involved laying the groundwork to get all sensors and other technology speaking the same language.\r\n\r\nAn integrated sensor architecture modernizes traditional stove-piped integration approaches. The design, based on the principles of service-oriented and open architectures, addresses integration without requiring users to customize interfaces for specific sensors or systems.\r\n\r\nThe resulting data layer pulls together all sensor feeds into one service for easy integration within GIS and other technologies. The result is a plug-and-play design to support interoperability across all the technologies.\r\n\r\nWhile details of the scenarios are classified, the spirit of the event is open. Because of the pre-work to integrate technologies from more than 50 participating companies, teams are able to test and try interoperable solutions.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe goal is for a capability like ArcGIS to just tap off the sensor data spigot and get access to everything without having to go after dedicated point-to-point integration with every single sensor,\u201d the lead interoperability engineer said. \u201cThere's barely enough time to shake everybody's hand let alone build interfaces to each other\u2019s technology.\u201d\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nRead part 2 about integrating technologies into a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/blog\/us-navy-integrates-diverse-intelligence-technologies\/\">common operational picture<\/a> and part 3 for details on the mission to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/blog\/us-navy-aims-to-reduce-warfighters-cognitive-load\/\">reduce the warfighter\u2019s cognitive load<\/a>. Learn how GIS is being applied to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/industries\/public-safety\/solutions\/law-enforcement\">national security<\/a>.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nImage courtesy of the U.S. Navy."}],"references":null},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.9 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>US Navy Achieves Plug-and-Play Integration for Innovation Battle Lab<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The US Navy achieved plug-and-play integration with all sensors speaking the same language and serving inputs into a GIS-based common operational picture.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/blog\/us-navy-puts-tactical-tools-to-the-test\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" 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