ARLINGTON, Va. — U.S. Navy and Marine Corps Engineer Officers and Engineer Chiefs have tough, dirty jobs in what’s called horizontal construction — building and maintaining roads, airstrips, landing zones and base camps.
A vital part of this work is making precise production calculations and estimates. Thanks to the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Global’s TechSolutions program, these warfighters can download a specially designed app on their smart phone or tablet to perform their jobs faster and more accurately — and ensure consistency and standardization across military services.
A partnership involving ONR Global TechSolutions and Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) Lakehurst, New Jersey, the idea for the Horizontal Construction App came from an Engineer Equipment Officer looking to improve how measurements are taken and calculated in the field.
“The Horizontal Construction App enhances readiness because it provides our construction planners and teams with an easy-to-use tool that gives them answers on the spot,” said Dr. Jessica Jones, deputy director, ONR Global TechSolutions. “Previously, they would need to leave a construction area and go back to their office to complete their planning estimates, but now they can stay in the field and get the answers that they need.”
These Marines and Sailors plan, supervise and direct various construction projects. This involves critical management of personnel, machinery and equipment, and the mobility of warfighters in an operational environment.
Each new project requires an early production-estimation phase. Traditionally, a warfighter would go into the field with a pencil and clipboard to determine the required logistics — how much equipment is needed, how much soil must be moved, etc. This person would then go to an office and use a customized Excel spreadsheet to crunch numbers and provide a formal estimate of the required resources, which could take hours.
“Each project would have its own unique spreadsheet,” said Dakota Crouchelli, a training simulation development lead at NAWCAD Lakehurst. “A Marine Corps Engineer Equipment Officer wondered if the process could be consolidated and simplified, so he contacted ONR Global TechSolutions, who reached out to us.”
That resulted in the creation of the Horizontal Construction App, which can be downloaded in the field and provide real-time data. Available in the Apple App Store — under the name “ESTIMATE-HC” — the app can be downloaded onto any iPhone or iPad, and doesn’t require a network connection to operate.
The app streamlines production estimates in two main ways: mathematics and augmented reality (which places virtual objects on a real-life backdrop).
First, the app allows users to perform instantaneous estimates and calculations because it’s populated with data and formulas employed by the Engineer Equipment Chief Course at U.S. Army Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, which teaches all military branches. This enables a common data set across all services.
On the augmented-reality side, users can turn on their device camera, point it where they’d like to place equipment and tap the screen to overlay virtual items over the physical space.
“A lot of these construction sites are out in the middle of nowhere with just a base camp, so it’s important to effectively determine what materials you need and how to organize them within the physical space available to you,” said John Gazzara, an electrical and computer engineer at NAWCAD Lakehurst.
“The Horizontal Construction App could be a valuable tool since it can be used anywhere, on any device; is available through the Apple Store; and, because it uses unclassified, publicly available data, doesn’t require specialized software for each device.”
ONR Global TechSolutions currently is overseeing testing of the Horizontal Construction App by Marines and Sailors. For his efforts, Chief Warrant Officer 4 Travis Hill — the Marine Corps Engineer Equipment Officer who originally contacted TechSolutions — recently received a Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal.
“Working with TechSolutions and NAWCAD Lakehurst was an outstanding experience,” said Hill. “They were receptive to my ideas and feedback and included me in each step of the app’s development. It was truly a collaborative effort that will help a lot of Marines and Sailors.”
Warren Duffie Jr. is a contractor for ONR Corporate Strategic Communications.