Guardiaris advances with patented LED technology for marksmanship and tactical simulation training.

Guardiaris has a long heritage of in-house development of simulation graphics engine, dating back 10+ years and is based on core competencies in game development. Due to specific market needs and MoD requests, the company moved into the defense, and military realm where it could build upon its detailed domain knowledge of graphics engines and couple this with defence digital simulators and digital twins designs. Some early developments were full-fledged simulators for main battle tanks, the M84 model (based on the T-72) and 8x8 APC/IFVs.
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The company’s recent flagship product is the SAMT, a mobile training and simulation solution, based on LED wall scene presentation technology, where you can train multidomain operations, with multiple weapon types, and scenarios from marksmanship to tactical, offering full visual and sound immersion (Picture source: Guardiaris)

Due to in-house vertical development and production, covering simulation graphics engine Guard™, mechanical and electronics development of weapon systems replicas and digital twins and full simulation training environment including the training management software, Guardiaris is in a position to customize and optimize its solutions to best fit the customer needs and constraints and optimize SWaP(C) (size weight and power cost). A typical example is running a complete virtual simulation of a shoulder-launched anti-tank weapon on a small, embedded computer with integrated micro OLED projection.

Thus, Guardiaris gradually built and expanded the portfolio to cover small arms and anti-tank, anti-aircraft training, remote weapon station simulators, vehicles from 4x4 to 8x8 and MBTs, with recent additions of UAV control and simulation; yet maintaining the same software framework. The company is enabling training cycles from weapon familiarization to marksmanship, to tactical in mounted or dismounted setups. Solutions are suitable for simulation centers (SATT), and for fast mobile deployments at the point of need (SAMT™). The solution set offers the same look and feel, which covers the Plain - Train - Assess processes of a training cycle, regardless of weapon types, vendors, and assuring the upgrade potential for new models, all within the same framework.

What technology did Guardiaris develop to create its training system?

The company’s recent flagship product is the SAMT™, a mobile training and simulation solution, based on LED wall scene presentation technology, where you can train multidomain operations, with multiple weapon types, and scenarios from marksmanship to tactical, offering full visual and sound immersion. Note the mobile connotation, whereby the system is brought to the location and up and running in less than 2 hours, thus substantially increasing the training efficiency. The physical orientation of weapon replicas and trainees is on the other hand based on the company’s in-house developed IR solution, quite different from what is usually done.

How far could other weapons and scenarios than those currently available be added to the training system?

Modularity and scalability are designed into the solutions. The key building blocks of Guardiaris solutions are well-defined modules, for example, the simple addition of more weapon replicas is possible to allow simultaneous training of more trainees, without any software changes. Furthermore, e.g. LED wall can be modularly expanded, for wider training scene presentation, in 4 m increments and positioned in a line or cylinder. Another interesting example is that users can start with a classical surround sound solution (multiple loudspeakers), and later add a module, the so-called sound floor, that substantially increases realism, and stress to trainees, while emanating sound from the floor in a low-frequency audio range, again.

Guaridiaris solutions are scalable in multiple dimensions: functional, performance and in scope. Functional scalability solves the issue of new versions of existing real weapons, and they can be included straightforwardly, with no changes from the user's perspective, apart from the new weapon replica model (with its new functions) is presented in the selection menu. Performance upgrades are felt by the user, e.g. higher resolution, offering more immersive visual experience or higher frame rate for smoother motion actions. The core system is preserved, and upgrades are performed, on-site or with new versions of the offerings. Scope scalability is the most beneficial to customers since this means the inclusion of new weapon types, from new vendors, novel scenarios that rewrite the training tactics concepts or multidomain training between small arms, and remote weapon stations on motion platforms mimicking 8x8 vehicle terrain motion. Again, note, that the user interface for the management of training is the same, greatly reducing the learning curve and preserving existing customers' know-how.

What does make the difference between Guardiaris’ training system and other virtual ones?

Guaridiaris' main focus is in-door training, although the company also offers outdoor MANPADS anti-aircraft solutions. Space orientation within the in-door training environment is based on the company’s patented IR technology, that encourages tactical trainee movement, retaining full information about weapon motion, trainee movement, trainee gaze and even eye tracking. This greatly contributes to the realism of tactical training where inter-team coordination and communication is of paramount importance.

Guardiaris’ solutions are weapon-type agnostic and can be fitted to any type of small arms (e.g. via Picatinny) or integrated into any weapon replica. The assessment part of training, consisting of After Action Report and trainee performance evaluation again offers the same look and feel, whereby performance reports are per trainee, team, and weapon handling statistics, with added historical training scores comparisons.

The added value for customers is the vertical integration, since After Action Review extracts and replays the complete training as if the trainees were engaging in a real 3D environment (as was seen on the presented scenery), but from any angle, and enables studying their potential improvements (e.g. from presented weapon orientations). Our solutions enable training according to the "train as you fight" motto, with realistic digitized weapon replicas (digital twins) in any domain and without VR glasses (you do not have them on the battlefield).

Guardiaris’ core technologies are patented, or pending, ranging from tactical in-door training, or LED wall-based, shoulder-launched replicas and some other unique non-kinetic anti-aircraft weapons (BANS).

Defense News January 2024