News United States Air Force
 Cadet team conducts robotics researchPublished May 16, 2023
                        
                        By Tech. Sgt. Zach Vaughn
                        
                        
                        U.S. Air Force Academy Strategic Communications
                **U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AFNS) --**
                A team of professors and cadets with the **U.S. Air Force Academy**’s **Warfighter Effectiveness Research Center**, a directorate of the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership, are striving to determine the practicality of incorporating a robot into operational Air Force missions.A female Cadet and male Security Forces Military Working Dog handler pose in front of the U.S. Air Force Academy's Eagle and Fledging Statue with a robot and Military Working Dog, February 2nd 2023.Cadet 1st Class Leslie Cunamay, a U.S. Air Force Academy systems engineering major and robotics team lead, and Senior Airman William Morris, 10th Security Forces Squadron Military Working Dog handler, pose with a Ghost Robotics Vision 60 robot and a Military Working Dog named Grizzley, at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., Feb. 2, 2023. Cunamay leads a team of Cadet-researchers to gather data and employ model-based systems engineering concepts for a Warfighter Effectiveness Research Center project to determine the practicality of incorporating a robot into operational Air Force missions. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Zach Vaughn)
            
            
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“Our primary objective in all research that is part of the WERC is to enrich cadet education through research focused on socio-technical systems in future conflict,” said Lt. Col. James Walliser, WERC director. “The cadets on this project have learned an immense amount about the integration of robots in the military. We endeavor for all of our research to benefit the warfighter.”**Employing modeling software**
Senior and first-year cadets collaborate to define customer requirements for the robot by using the modeling software CATIA, or Computer Aided Three-Dimensional Interactive Application. The department provides the software licenses enabling cadets to employ model-based systems engineering concepts, according to Cadet 1st Class Leslie Cunamay, a systems engineering major and robotics team lead.
“During research we can lose sight of the primary mission requirements and sometimes bite off more than we can chew,” Cunamay said. “But the software helps keep us on track, so we accomplish what’s feasible given our objectives.”
Cunamay and her team use CATIA to virtually reference logical and physical diagrams that detail the robot’s functionality.
“If you’re an operator, we can tell you that you’ll be in charge of x, y and z and this is how it’s going to affect you,” Cunamay said. “Depending on your mission, we can determine how employing the robot can impact other positions across the operation, as well. CATIA helps us to better understand the robot’s capabilities and limitations.”**Testing performance**
Cadet 1st Class Micah Treptau, a coding specialist, and Cadet 1st Class Justin Harmon, a robotics technician, are measuring how much power the robot’s battery uses based on weight, distance traveled and time in operation. This information will prove valuable to future customers, according to Treptau.
“Our goal is to create a digital twin of the robot dog,” Treptau said. “That way people can use the data to evaluate and simulate the best, most effective way to employ it.”A close up photo of the front of a Ghost Robotics Vision 60 robot in Fairchild Hall, U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado, February 8th 2023.A cadet operates a Ghost Robotics Vision 60 robot in Fairchild Hall at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., Feb. 8, 2023. Cadets, in collaboration with professors from the Academy’s Warfighter Effectiveness Research Center, are gathering data, employing model-based systems engineering concepts and developing solutions to determine the practicality of integrating robots into base defense missions. (U.S. Air Force photo by Trevor Cokley)
            
            
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“If we can get people to feel more comfortable with this [robot] then we can have it enter the workforce far more effectively,” Treptau said.
Treptau surmised exposure to the robot as a primary solution to an individual’s acclimation, an objective echoed by Walliser.**Warfighter and technology collaboration**
“We’re very focused on robot-human teaming and trust in automation and figuring out how people can control, operate and work with these new robotic and A.I. technologies,” Walliser said. “It’s a pillar of our research in the WERC.”
The WERC became interested in the Vision 60 robot within the last few years due to other Air Force base’s purchasing them for their own operations, according to Walliser.
“The exciting part is where this project could go over the course of the next few years,” Treptau said. “What we’re doing is just scratching the surface of modeling what the robot is capable of and then people can actually test out those capabilities in the future using the data that we collected.”
The current team of cadets will wrap-up their projects and pass along lessons learned to the next class of cadet-researchers.LR 



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