Members of the Cognitive Science Team at the Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center, or NSRDEC, are helping Soldiers to keep it real — and then some. The team is investigating how augmented reality, or AR, may help Soldiers improve their mission-planning skills. “Our goal is to evaluate mobile AR as a promising candidate…
Keeping It Real — Natick Scientists Investigating Augmented Reality as A Mission-Planning Tool
Members of the Cognitive Science Team at the Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center, or NSRDEC, are helping Soldiers to keep it real — and then some. The team is investigating how augmented reality, or AR, may help Soldiers improve their mission-planning skills. “Our goal is to evaluate mobile AR as a promising candidate…
Army Engineer Invents Lightweight Ballistic Combat Shirt, Wins Award
When Army engineer Robert DiLalla set out to develop a new design for Soldier protection, he knew he had to break the mold. The result of his revolutionary approach, which focuses on the Soldier as an athlete, is the game-changing, Ballistic Combat Shirt, a new lightweight body armor system. “We set out with this science…
Natick Civilian Takes Giant Leap to Learn More About Soldier Equipment
Why would an Army civilian jump out of a perfectly good airplane? Jennifer Hunt did it to find out more about Soldier equipment and the Soldiers who use it. Hunt is a textile technologist/materials engineer on the Aerial Delivery Engineering Support Team, or ADEST, at the Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center. At…
Navy, It’s Cold Outside: Army Shelters Aid Navy Arctic Exercise
U.S. Army shelters perform well on land, but that just may be the tip of the iceberg, or rather the tip of the floating ice sheet. The Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center provided shelter support to the Navy during its biannual Ice Exercise in the Arctic Ocean. NSRDEC shelters were used as…
Minimized Logistics Habitat Unit Saves Energy, Preserves Quality of Life
For Soldiers in remote locations, home is where the MILHUT is. The small shelter system provides a home-like environment while also reducing energy and water usage, as well as waste. The Minimized Logistics Habitat Unit, or MILHUT, is a containerized shelter that relies on renewable energy technologies, which enable warfighters to be deployed longer in…
Natick Scientists Collaborating to Create ‘Second-Skin’ Protection
Collaboration has long been second nature for researchers at the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center, and now a partnership is developing “second-skin,” chemical-biological protection. NSRDEC is working with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California at Santa Barbara, the Air Force Civil Engineering Center, and the U.S. Army Edgewood…
Army Helps To Meet Nutritional Needs of Mars Astronauts
Traveling to the second smallest planet in the solar system can give you a big appetite, not to mention special nutritional needs. Researchers in the Combat Feeding Directorate, or CFD, at the Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center, or NSRDEC, are working on two projects for NASA to help meet the nutritional needs of…
U.S. Army Investigates Self-Healing Protective Clothing
Army researcher Quoc Truong wants to fill in the gaps in Soldier protective clothing – literally. Truong is a physical scientist at the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center, or NSRDEC. He is collaborating with other researchers at NSRDEC, the University of Massachusetts Lowell, and Triton Systems, Inc., on the technical development…