New high-techs tools aim to lighten Marines' gear

The Gruntworks Squad Integration Facility showcased its latest initiatives to lighten and streamline the individual loads Marines carry into combat during the Navy League's 2015 Sea, Air, Space exposition in mid-April. from April 13-15.

On display was an advanced 3-D body scanner, a sophisticated computer simulation program,s and a state-of-the art medical device dynamometers commonly used by professional sports teams to measure performance and stress on joints.

Over the years, new gear from better body armor to improved new rifle optics and night vision — and the batteries they need to run — have added pounds after pound to Marines' bpacks. Today many carry more than 100 pounds into combat, up from the average 60 pound pack grunts carried during Vietnam. Army studies from Natick Laboratories in 1973 found that infantrymen in warm climates like Vietnam carried about 60 pounds. By 2007, a Naval Research Advisory Committee Report found the average assault load was between 97 and 135 pounds.

Adding all that Immense weight is a problem Richter said. In addition to draining Marines' energy, it places dangerous stress on their joints, which can lead to fatigue, sprains or long-term problems like arthritis or chronic back injuries. Every one of The MERS team works with the mantra "ounces equal pounds and pounds equal pain."On the battlefield and in training, weight means fatigue, sprains and stress fractures. In the long term, it can leave Marines with arthritis in major joints and chronic back injuries effecting them long after they leave the service.

Here's is a look at a few of Gruntworks' flagship technologies.

Perhaps the most significant piece of wizardry on display by Gruntworks was a body mechanics computer simulator called GruntSim. Using a 3-D computer-aided design capability, it that allows gear developers to kit up a Marine avatar any way they can imagine before running them through a virtual obstacle course.

Developers can select one of several"average" Marine avatars, ranging from a petite woman to a hulking man formulated after measuring the bodies of countless Marines. It highlights how different body types might handle the same loadout. The model is sophisticated enough to calculate not just how gear will affect torque joints, a Marine's but also effect Marines' center of gravity and even flexibility.

The program was originally developed by the University of Iowa, said Roger Wood, a systems engineer with MERS. The Office of Naval Research began refining the program in 2010 and worked to train Marine personnel to use it starting in beginning October. The Marine officials requested Corps asked for a few tweaks to the software and a finished product was delivered to Gruntworks on April 16.

As developers design new gear, they can add 3-D CAD models to the programs to see how they eaffect Marine mobility as they run through the simulated MC-LEAP obstacle course – short for Marine Corps Load Effects Assessment Program. If a virtual GruntSim test shows the gear fits and doesn't everything is streamline enough to fit and does not put undue pressure on joints, Gruntworks might mock up a real-world prototype, put it on live Marines and run them through an actual obstacle courseMC-LEAP trial. If the simulation flags too many problems, joints with red, however, designers head back to the drawing board.

On display at SAS was an abbreviated five-camera head scanner, But at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, the organization has a full-body version used to capture the measurements of hundreds upon hundreds of Marines. The avatars that data is used to create add precision to the gear development and shows more accurately how different gear effects different sizes and shapes of Marines.

The service used to take measurements manually, said Evan Luo an engineer with Gruntworks. But it that was labor intensive, and each person doing the measuring did it each official took measurements slightly differently and the number of data points on record was limited. The data was also tough to capture, and the last time the service conducted a full n anthropomorphic survey in 2010 it took three months to complete, Luo said.

If, for example, developers are working on new binoculars and need to know the average distance between a Marine's pupils, they can go back to scanned models and capture that measurement, Richter said. Under the old method, they might have to conduct a new survey if they didn't measure for that in the past. if they had not thought to capture that initially they were out of luck and would have to run a new survey.

In fact, Richter said the device it is now being used to test future steering wheels for the Amphibious Combat Vehicle that will ensure a Marine can still steer the heavy ship-to-shore connector vehicle if the power steering system fails.