K9 handler training in virtual reality
MAVRICK
Multiuse Advanced VR Immersive Capabilities Kit
A working canine commanded by voice, hand and gear, through scenarios the instructor builds and replays.
The problem
Handlers go from the classroom straight to a live canine.
Handling a working canine takes an experienced handler who can read its behavior in an operational environment. Yet training goes straight from the classroom to a real canine.
Negative training
A new handler's mistakes can train the canine wrong, sometimes for good.
Few scenarios
A canine's physical and mental limits cap how many scenarios each handler gets.
Limited behaviors
Handlers learn to read only their training canine, not every behavior they will meet.
Why a unit needs it
The missing step between the classroom and the live canine.
What it solves
No negative training
Mistakes land on a virtual canine, with no consequence for a real one.
Any scenario, any day
Train at any hour, as often as needed; the instructor builds a scenario and runs it again.
Full range of behavior
Wind, time of day, session length, hidden explosives and its own traits change how the canine works.
What it helps with
Better handling
Voice commands, hand signals and gear used right and on time; the canine answers to how it is handled.
Safer canines
Canine first aid, and heat and cold management, rehearsed before the field needs them.
Every run reviewed
Each run is recorded: every command, sniff, mark and bite replayed on one timeline.
What it is
A VR simulator in which handlers train with an avatar of their own canine.
Your own canine
Breed, appearance and ten traits set to match the unit's canine, and changed at any time.
An autonomous canine
It responds to commands, distractions and stressors; the handler learns to read its cues.
Any environment
Deserts, cities, forests and tunnels, built by the instructor, without relocating a unit.
Team training
Handler and assistant share one scenario and practice coordination, directed live by the instructor.
The canine and the handler
Five breeds, four roles, handled the way a real canine is handled.
German Shepherd, Malinois, Dutch Shepherd, Labrador and Jack Russell Terrier; detection, attack, search and rescue, or dual-purpose. The handler works the canine by voice, by hand and with its gear, and the canine searches, marks, bites, tires and gets hurt, and answers to how it was handled.
Voice and hand
Ten voice commands recognized on the PC, in your language; hand signals given by hand.
Scent and marking
Explosives, drugs, cash and scent trails, and fifteen ways for the canine to mark a find.
Bite and release
Suspects who fight, run or surrender. The canine is called off by voice or pulled off by its vest.
First aid, graded
Bleeding to heatstroke; every treatment graded Perfect, Not perfect or Failed.
The instructor
Builds the scenario, directs it live, replays every run.
Scenario Creation Tool
More than 300 items in twelve environments: people, explosives, drugs, scent trails and triggers.
Live direction
Change the canine's traits, injuries and conditions, move any character, breach doors.
After-action review
Every run recorded and replayed from any angle, with a tab for each event type.
One closed classroom
One instructor PC and two VR stations with Meta Quest 3. No internet.
Next step
A pilot at your K9 training center.
One instructor PC and two VR stations, installed in one day
Environments from the MAVRICK library; the command words in your language
Two weeks with one handler course, every run recorded
A joint review of the results
A spatial computing company that builds training simulators for armed forces.
Track record
An Israeli company that has supplied systems to the US Army, the US Marine Corps and the IDF.
MAVRICK today
Developed with the IDF's canine unit and with the US Army and the US Marine Corps. Five breeds, four canine roles, twelve environments; ready to install.