First Virtual Training of the NATIONAL ARMY OF COLOMBIA for the prevention of accidents with Firearms and Prevention of Internal Problems.
Perseus - Mobile Unit
The "Perseus Project '' is a mobile unit of the Colombian National Army's personnel command that travels around the country training the institution's troops in different battalions, cities, and towns. This vehicle can be placed and deployed anywhere and then transformed into a virtual training classroom . Inside, it has everything necessary to carry out these exercises, with which the army's personnel command dictates different instructions and evaluates its troops, immersing them in a learning scenario through a virtual reality experience. Thanks to the tool's quantifiable results, the instructors accompanying the exercise can take detailed notes of this instruction and / or training.
The project was born from an approach with the military forces and an exhaustive research exercise that allowed the understanding of some of the Internal Problems of the National Army, to then propose innovative solutions supported by the latest technologies. The implementation of this mobile unit dates back to February 2019 and by October of the same year, it had already positively impacted more than 6.000 troops in Colombia. Currently, it is estimated that close to 1000 personnel are being trained every month in different parts of the country.
"One could imagine a thousand almost obvious problems in matters of war, but it is true that within the institution there are also many serious problems that constantly affect it in terms of costs, time and personal damage, which can even result in the death of its personnel. That is why it was decided to initiate this project, which deals with and prevents these internal problems, which are often created from simple situations. Consequently, after a year of understanding, two typologies were selected to be faced, seeking mainly to minimize the damage and risk, as well as to lower the death rate in the end."
- John Higuera. CEO Higuera Studios
"Under this internal research, two focuses were selected: 1- Internal Assault Prevention and 2- Firearm accidents. At the end of 2018 and beginning of 2019, the educational experience is designed and this innovative technology exclusive to PROJECT PERSEO is developed."
Internal Assault Prevention.
One of the internal problems of concern in the institution is the aggression between soldiers for different reasons that are enhanced due to their lifestyles. For this type of situations, this virtual reality tool is developed, which follows up in detail the officer or soldier, simulating this type of experiences to know what decisions he/she makes throughout the hypothetical scenarios, where they are exposed to different problems and pressures, to know their reactions, with which they can establish their different ways of development, and according to their consequent results, it is possible to establish their behavior profiles and ways of reacting to each specific situation.
This content seeks to identify possible people prone to be a risk index among the same units. Secondly, to show the knowledge that each employee has to prevent these situations and to generate awareness by "seeing the consequences without having to live the experiences in real life".
All of the above in order to support internal communication campaigns that teach soldiers how to better manage all types of stress.
2. Firearm accidents
Given the high rate of accidents using firearms, the focus is to reinforce the necessary and sufficient knowledge about the mechanisms, security protocols and the plan to follow to avoid them. The work concentrates on how to improve that knowledge and strengthen it in the cash, military or officer and how to avoid in some cases even death in such daily events as guard duty, traffic, walks, rounds, cleaning or unloading weapons etc, thus demonstrating that the most prone scenarios can be avoided in high percentages.
Objectives: To help create awareness on how to operate warfare equipment correctly: The virtual education highlights that there are safety cartridges, mechanisms and other safety protocols, which have already been designed to avoid such things. Evaluate the knowledge in hypothetical situations of risk with weapons, analyze the decision making and give feedback or accurate reflection to each case.