Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) 2011
2011 Paper No. 11111 Page 1 of 8
MH60S/R Helicopter Multi-Platform &
Web-Based Trainer with Dipper Acoustics
Robert Richards, Ph.D.
Stottler Henke Associates, Inc.
San Mateo, CA
richards@stottlerhenke.com
ABSTRACT
The US Navy’s PMA-205, in conjunction with the training and simulation industry, has benefited the Navy by
developing and deploying the Operator Machine Interface Assistant (OMIA) part-task trainer for the MH-60S and
MH-60R helicopters. This flexible, multi-platform, web-based crew trainer is currently in use by HSC-2, HSC-3,
HSM-41, Navy helicopter maintenance organizations, and by fleet squadrons at port, home and when deployed at
sea. Earlier versions have been in use for over nine years. OMIA benefits the warfighter by providing a simulation
of the MH-60S/R Common Cockpit that includes a FLIR capability with optional hardware FLIR hand-control unit
and acoustics simulations. This paper will describe the design decisions made to OMIA during the development of
the training application so it would not require any special user rights to install. It will also discuss the unforeseen
side benefits the Navy has realized beyond its original development intent. Design decisions included porting the
OMIA to Java enabling deployment as both a portable stand-alone application for PC, Mac and Linux, as well as a
web application that can be run through a web browser. Side benefits include the device being picked up by
maintenance organizations, as they need to understand the cockpit as part of their activities. Currently, OMIA
continues to benefit the Navy by providing training that can be accessed wherever and whenever it is needed, and
thanks to this flexibility its use has expanded far beyond its original scope via ongoing funding. A recent capability
expansion is the addition of sophisticated acoustics, whereby acoustics training previously only available in limited
availability TOFT trainers is now available via the Acoustics Training System (ATS) version of OMIA.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Robert Richards, Ph.D. is a Principal Scientist and Project Manager at Stottler Henke. Dr. Richards is managing
and has managed multiple projects for both commercial and government clients, including various intelligent-
tutoring-system-based training projects. He is the principle investigator for OMIA, a PC-based desktop training
system that teaches crewmembers the Navy’s new MH-60R and MH-60S helicopters. Dr. Richards has taken the
project from a Research and Development SBIR project to a deployed training tool that has been awarded multiple
IDIQs totaling over $12 million. Dr. Richards received his Ph.D. from Stanford University in mechanical
engineering with an emphasis on machine learning and Artificial Intelligence.
