Going high-tech? Tyndall using cutting-edge technology to be base of the future now – The News Herald

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TYNDALLThe future of Tyndall Air Force Base is now.

Tyndall held a demonstration Friday morning to show its"digital twin" data capture technology in action.A digital twin is a digital representation of a real-world physical asset, processor system, incorporating structural information and real-time streaming data.

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Air Force engineers will begin digitally mapping select buildings with sophisticated camera suits,drones and other sensors to create a virtual representation of facilities on the installation to create a digital twin.

The product will serve as the foundation for numerous capabilities, settingTyndall on apath to be the Air Forces first "installation of the future."

Tyndall is essentially a pathfinder for the Air Force with this new technology. The digital twin will look and feel like the actual facility, but in a virtual reality setting.

Efficiency is the key part to the technology. A digital twin system can help developers plan future development, refine facility designs, track construction progressand enhance facility maintenance and operations.

Augmented and virtual reality tools will help service members on the base diagnose problems and repair equipment more quickly. In a virtual reality setting, anybody pushing on a door will feel resistance, as if it's in the real world.

Lowell Usrey, Tyndall's Project Management Office Integration Division chief, has been on the front line with the new technology. He said he hadlooked forward to Friday's demonstration.

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"It's amazing. It's truly exciting to see some of the ideas and concepts we thought about over the course of years as a civil engineer and have those ideas and concepts brought to fruition here at Tyndall," Usreysaid. "I think it's great for the base.It's great for the Air Force. It's great for the DOD (Department of Defense), and I think it's great for the local community."

Usreystressed that Bay County will have an Air Force base that will bring in technology that no other basehas in the country. He said Tyndall will be a pioneer for technology moving forwardand will be something that the community can get behind.

Virtual reality trainingalso will be an asset for security forces to practice high-risk, realistic situations without actual exposure to the risk, since it will be done in a virtual setting.New smart buildings will incorporate gunshot detection sensors that will pinpoint the location of the gunshot in the event of an active shooter situation.

Maj. Jordan Criss, 325th Security Forces Squadron commander, said he is especially excited about what the digital twin technology means for his department. When security forces do high-risk training sessions, they can do hundreds of virtual reality runs instead of only a couple.

The digital twin system also can help how the base'ssecurity systems will be set up.

"Placement of cameras, placement of barriers, placement of patrols... we understand that there are potential adversariesand we can use this digital twin, along with other security applications, to provide data-driven decisions," Criss said. "You can say 'We can put a camera here, a barrier here, place our patrols here,' and you would have overlapping coverage."

Criss added that the digital mapping technologywill help security forces determine if they need 10 cameras instead of 20 and a certain number of patrols, whichcould save the base and taxpayers money.

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Going high-tech? Tyndall using cutting-edge technology to be base of the future now - The News Herald