Soldiers will soon gain battlefield experience at the ISU Virtual Reality Applications Center, where the Iowa National Guard and its Iowa Technology Center unit has teamed up with Iowa State to build a virtual 3D training environment.

Adrian Sannier, associate director of the Virtual Reality Applications Center, said the main reason the Iowa National Guard wants to use Iowa State is because the university can provide the facility, access to a collection of hardware and software and the researchers to make this project a success.

“One thing we want to do is explore the main ways to provide training,” said Sannier, professor of industrial and manufacturing systems.

Brig. Gen. Joseph Lucas, director of the Iowa Technology Center, said the Virtual Reality Applications Center has some of the most outstanding engineering personnel in the country.

Iowa State and the Iowa National Guard form a mutually beneficial relationship, he said, which will allow the guards to control or even fly airplanes in simulated environments.

“We’re big into effective training,” he said.

Sannier said this new method of training will simulate a potential environment before the soldiers actually experience it. Placing the troops into possible future situations is a practical way to train soldiers at home.

“Soldiers need practical training the most,” Sannier said.

He described this new form of training as a combination of classroom instruction as well as soldier interaction within the station.

Each troop can learn to work together as a team while they experience remote and far-away landscapes before arriving on location, Sannier said.

The virtual reality training center can accommodate up to 50 soldiers at a time, though only two or three have been accommodated in previous years, Sannier said.

Lucas said the new form of training is more state-of-the-art than past methods.

“When you take a two-dimensional flat screen and turn it into a 3D environment, you’ve just effectively trained that person,” he said.

Speculation is in progress about estimated costs for a project of this magnitude, which can take a long time to finish, Sannier said.

“This project is subject to continued funding,” he said.”It should take about three years to complete.”

The virtual reality stations will start out being used every day, then periodically. Evaluation will be conducted after the training to check for areas that need improvement, Sannier said.

“This will allow the soldiers to experience as much as they can before being in the actual situation,” he said.