Soldier application will fulfil the vision of the Sri Lankan

High-Tech Soldier: A Spatial military organizations’ with the collaboration of modern

Application for Battlefield technology.

Information Keywords: Military organizations, WebGIS, GIS, Mobile

application, GPS, GSM
LRK Kahandagamage 1#, Ranjith Premalal De Silva2
1 I. INTRODUCTION
Centre for Research and Development - Ministry of
Defence The High-Tech soldier application’s leading purpose is to
2
University of Peradeniya cater the emergency situations in the military battlefield
#
rasika@crd.lk and as well as in the country. This digital application is
intended to provide adequate information for the military
Abstract– In modern military organizations, technology is leaders and ground level personnel to use the correct
a key area of concern. The growing dominance of information in the battlefields. Further, it is an essential
technology on the battlefield has resulted in a number of requirement of extended practice in this software to
frameworks that challenge the traditional definition of a boost the knowledge of the incident reporting, monitoring
combatant in the world. "Hi-Tech Soldier” is intended to and tracking fields in the countries emergency situation.
expose a new dimension by applying the world’s most Furthermore, one of the major problem which faced by
empowering mobile, web and live tracking technology. In our armed forces can be identified as follows.
the battlefield, armed forces required relevant, real-time
information about their target area, including precise “The usage of traditional out-dated technological insights
enemy target coordinates, potential threats, near-by for our combatant in the battlefield”
friendly, neutral forces, non-combatant personnel and
facilities information in rapid way. To provide real time
information of such nature, it is an urgent task for the
success of the combatants in the battlefield. In the early
era, this is an impossible task, with the use of traditional
techniques. The “Hi-Tech Soldier” modern application
serves fast and accurate data which are required for these
operations. Further, the web solution provides better
communication among the chain of command. It
facilitates precise conversion of locational data together
with the Army grid system and World Geodetic System
and it allows troops to perform recognition activities Figure 1. Traditional Map Reading
without moving to target area. This incorporates with the
web solution and mobile application which extend the This may cause for improve the drawbacks of marking
view of user-friendliness in this High-Tech soldier maps manually with higher time consuming, high
application. Furthermore, the web-based GIS (WebGIS) communication barriers, lack of knowledge of exact
system enables users to process and generate information troops locations and lack of prior information of ground
from the ground to the map. Nevertheless, the spatial conditions as shown in Figure 1.
information can be stored in a database, from which it
can be extracted on demand. This system consists with Hence, to eliminate the above drawbacks of our armed
two types of GIS and GPS applications. First one is the forces, the High-Tech soldier application is objected to
situational reporting system and the other one is the address and transform the combatant to the digital era by
human tracking system. Although, it has a new product using the undermentioned four major insights. This allows
which is based on the Global System for Mobile using the maps in a digital way.
communications (GSM), General Packet Radio Service
(GPRS) network and GPS satellite positioning system. It
successfully provides multiple functions, such as security,
positioning, surveillance, emergency, etc... The High-Tech
Soldier application does not require technical expertise to
handle and to obtain the results of it. Even the ground
level personal can easily handle and could obtain the
details of the current battlefield. Initial training is
adequate for continue its operations of the High-Tech
soldier application. In conclusion, adopting this High-Tech
Figure 2. High-Tech Application Initial Screen
 Combat Man System” (ACMS) & technology development
Object 1 - Master Map – Contains the main map of the program
system.
Object 2 - Situation Reporting System – Mobile application United Kingdom - “The Future Integrated Soldiers
is used to send the images to the system from end user. Technology” (FIST) is the UK modernized solider program.
The situation image can be taken by the end user and UK is the biggest & perhaps the most ambitious
send through the system to the operation room. organization “NATO” ally to pursue hi-tech soldier
According to the data (lat, lon), the location will view in modernization program
the map
Object 3 - Tracking System – The tracking will function by Italy - That Italian military has implemented complex
mobiles and through an application the location will track system “Soldato Futuro” soldier modernization war
and view in the map accordingly. program; this involves in two phases, first phase consists
Object 4 - Str Return – This will give the return of the of 12-month technology demonstration phase and the
count of persons and ammunition second phase that consists of a 15- month operational
Object 5- Veh Return – This will give the return of the test & evaluation phase
vehicles details.
3. METHODOLOGY
This computing engine has three major segments, namely;
On-going operation segment, planning future operations
segment and analysis and prediction segment. Figure 4
shows the system architecture diagram.

Figure 3. High-Tech Application Dashboard

The main dashboard of the High-Tech application has

shown in the Figure 3. Above five objectives have fulfilled
with this dashboard functions. Figure 4. Methodology

2. LITERATURE REVIEW The methodology of the High-Tech soldier application

Below literature has reviewed in the High-Tech elaborated as follows. The high secure architecture has
application development. been used for the implementation of this High-Tech
soldier application.
The technological insights have been described in the
current world (Kalle & Seymour 1999). The IoT requires well placed sensors that transmit
information wirelessly back to the cloud or other storage
USA - “Land Warrior” (LW) is an advanced technology medium. That information is either used for real time
among the field of technology that has moved into the analysis or later to optimize and automate processes. In
fighting soldiers. That there is no secret with the fact that this methodology, an effort will be made to show in which
researchers of U.S. military users are using most of the this vision has already been achieved around the globe
world's top most advanced modern futuristic using wireless technology. To develop this application
technologies. The LW requirement was approved in 1993. mainly used technologies are Global Position System
(GPS), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM),
Canada – “soldier of tomorrow” program initiated back Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Mobile technology
considering since 1988. Officially that was called by the and WebGIS.
Canadian forces as “integrated soldiers system project”
(issp), is unique considering with USA land warrior, A. System Architecture
because it focuses on considering human factors of soldier When developed national level cloud base centralized
application to share within the servicers it has to have
Singapore - The Singapore began their solider four core elements:
modernization project in 2002, calling it “Advanced
 Physical components: It comprises product’s  Map digitising
mechanical and electronic parts. Mobile app, Situation  Data Bulk/batch loading
reporting system, Communication equipment  Assignment attributes to
 Smart components: It comprises Tracking devices,  Data conversion  
 Data validation
Weather sensors, Health monitoring, microprocessors,
 Data visualisation
data storage, controls, software and, typically, an  Feature symbolisation
embedded WebGis system and enhanced user  Feature filtering
interface.  Geoatabase management 
 Connectivity components: It comprises GPS, GSM, sola  Rectification of layers
power, antennae, battery and protocols enabling  Georeferencing
wired or wireless connections with the product.  Data processing (Proximity analysis (buffer,
 Consideration components: It comprises reliability, distance calculation. Spatial joins or overlay
operations, Network analysis, Raster analyses)
security, availability, usability, scalability and end user
 Drone Mapping
acceptance  Terrain modelling (3D modelling)
 Output (Map production /reports, summary
B. System Components statistics, Generate text report from attribute
To develop Geo database or spatial database need well database)
designed as per user requirement or project requirement.
In database design can divided in to three areas. First one This application has two servers and work separately but
is conceptual design of database model or analysed sharing data in single platform. These two servers we
required data and information. Second one is logical called Geodatabase and WebMap Server. Figure 5 shows
design, data processing of spatial, statistical and attributes the some of the Key component or tool available to this
data. Client can communicate WebMap server through system
standard web protocol.

This application mainly works with web browser in order

to view and interact with GIS data, the browser needs to
be extended by using an adequate Plug-In, Java applet or
both. In this WebGIS application, the web server is also
communicating with the server-side GIS component. This
is adding spatial analysis functionality to the system.
Following are the key consideration for development
process;

 Server – System capable to host in cloud or personal Figure 5 Geodatabase and WebMap Server
server.
 Encryption – Encrypts data transfer between user and Master Map – Military used 1:50,000 MGM of Sri Lanka
the server by using sheared key for their operations and training. It is a challenge to move
 Computerization Engine – Main frame of the system soldiers from traditional cartography to digital
 Clients – Clients been categorized in to different user cartography, but future solider or Commander need more
levels with authentications. information about ground and enemy. To overcome this
 Administrator – Empowered with all the facilities situation this map server work with Google map engine
available with the server. and overlay 1:50,000 MGM map over it using spatial
 Publisher – Possible to publish the maps and algorithm developed spatially to this map engine.
layers.
 User – Only be possible to view the maps and
restricted to do any edits.

Considering GIS operations, all the factors need for

developed next generation competitive application, it is
obvious fulfilled military need of Command and Control
Information Systems (C2IS). The following list contains the
GIS operations valuable for this WebGIS application,
 Figure 6. Layer Analysis Figure 9. Location View in the Dashboard

Layer Analysis – This will provide the drawing facility for The High-Tech soldier application features of grid
the users to draw the military related symbols and details conversion will enable the army grid to Lat, Lon and Lat,
(Points, Lines, Polygons) as per Figure 6. In the battlefield, Lon to army grid vice versa. Further, this has allowed
this is immensely important to draw the testing by using users to display the selected location military grid
this feature. reference and WGS 84 Latitude and Longitude in the
format of decimal degrees. Other than the grid convertion
user can get the zooming level of the map and the map
scale as shown in Figure 10.

Figure 10. Location View in the Dashboard

Figure 7. 1:50,000 Maps The situation reporting system is combination of Mobile

app and WebGIS application. User can login to the mobile
There are 92 map sheets cover the whole Sri Lanka with application using username and password, own location
1:50,000 maps. User can load the maps and these maps will pick automatically with Google address. This data will
will overlay on top of Google map with geo-reference and transceiver through mobile data to backend and will
user can on/off the layer or change map opacity level as popup location automatically with the details. Figure 11
per Figure 7. shows the control box of the reporting system

Figure 11. Situation Reporting Selection

Figure 8. Proximity Analysis

Proximity analysis feature of the High-Tech soldier

application is an analytical technique used to determine
the relationship between a selected point and its
neighbours. Using this tool, user can find nearby features
according to the distance as per Figure 8. For example,
user can find nearby incidents, schools, hospital, etc…
Figure 9 show the resulting window of the analysis.
Figure 12. Strep Image
 Further, KML uploading has shown in Figure 15 is a key
The situation report view of the WebGIS application has functions of this High-Tech soldier application. Google
shown in the Figure 12 and after clicking the icon it will Earth data can easily upload to the High-Tech soldier
pop-up with details. application by using this feature tool.

One of the key features of this application is the tracking Finding location of the address is utmost requirement in
app, this application connected with mobile tracking app military operation. This system used reverse Geocoding
or Human tracking device. Commanders can view real technic to address this issue. User can enter the address
time movement in the map or can view in street view to the system and systems will generate the coordinate of
window. In figure 13, shows the tracking window. the location. Figure 16 show the Registration form of this
application

Figure 13. Tracking Window

Figure 16. Registration Form
In military used 1:50,000 maps for operation requirement,
but now a day commanders need more information about
4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
the ground before they moved to the ground. In this
Most of the time before going to the operations need to
situation Drone mapping technology came to battlefield.
analysis the weather attributes and developed weather
Using drones users can develop centimetre resolution
overlay. This application strength with weather applets.
maps, these maps need a platform to do analysis.
Figure 17 shows the weather overlay of this application.

Figure 17 Weather Application

The strength report of the armed forces can obtain very

Figure 14. Drone Image Loader accurately and easily in real time by using this application
as per the Figure 18.
The drone image uploading has shown in Figure 14 and
has facilitated to upload the drone images for the system.

Figure 18. Strength Report

The ultimate outcome of this modern technological

Figure 15. KML Loader military application could elaborate with the detail
relevance of its functions. It allows commanders to read
the battle functions while stay in their operation room. Arctur, D. and Zeiler, M., 2004. Designing Geodatabases:
Hence, it enabled the remote operation of the battlefield. case studies in GIS data modeling. ESRI, Inc..

High – Tech soldier has the possible of get connected with Alhmiedat, T., Taleb, A.A. and Bsoul, M., 2012. A study on
anywhere of the world. This is because of the cloud based threats detection and tracking systems for military
solution has implemented through this High-Tech soldier applications using WSNs. International Journal of
application. The system has designed as highly user Computer Applications, 40(15), pp.12-18.
friendly manner and the web/mobile solution can easily
adopt by the military personals. Dunlap, C.J., 1999. Technology and the 21st Century
Battlefield: Recomplicating Moral Life for the Statesman
Further, this application is functioning in any mobile and Soldier. DIANE Publishing.
service provider’s coverage area. It allows the
coordination with the GSM technology as well. This High- Lyytinen, Kalle & Goodman, Seymour. (1999). Finland: The
Tech soldier application is collaborated with the web- Unknown Soldier on the IT Front.. Commun. ACM. 42. 13-
based GIS (WebGIS) technology and enabled users to 17
process and generates its information from the ground to
the map. Nevertheless, the High-Tech soldier application Fras, M., Mohorko, J. and Cucej, Z., 2008, September. Real
is using Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), time “system-in-the-loop” simulation of tactical networks.
General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) network and GPS In 2008 16th International Conference on Software,
satellite positioning system as new insight of its functions. Telecommunications and Computer Networks (pp. 105-
108). IEEE.
5. CONCLUSION
The result of this development is to find new way to Robles-Ortega, M.D., Ortega, L. and Feito, F.R., 2012.
unfold the battle using new technology. This application Design of Topologically Structured Geo-database for
could provide enormous benefits for the Sri Lanka military Interactive Navigation and Exploration in 3D Web-Based
ongoing operations, mission planning and trainings. The Urban Information Systems. Journal of Environmental
IPB is an invention of modern technology and facilitate Informatics, 19(2).
with the collaboration of navy and air force. This gives
Lu, X., 2006, June. Develop web gis based intelligent
immense benefits to the three forces while in the
transportation application systems with web service
battlefield environment. Also in the digital era, the
technology. In 2006 6th International Conference on ITS
connectivity is the main measurement of success in any
Telecommunications (pp. 159-162). IEEE.
modern program. The application also having the
infrastructure of extended network features within the Fu, P. and Sun, J., 2010. Web GIS: principles and
second of responded interface capability. applications. Esri Press.

Currently, the army military persons are using Zeiler, M., 1999. Modeling our world: the ESRI guide to
this high-tech soldier application on the emergency geodatabase design. ESRI, Inc..
situations of the country. Even in the joint operations or
disaster situation is highly effective. Apart from the Wang, M., Wang, A. and Li, A., 2006, August. Mining
aforesaid main objective functions, other objectives also spatial-temporal clusters from geo-databases.
fulfilled by this application. The High-Tech soldier web In International Conference on Advanced Data Mining and
based solution and android mobile application have Applications (pp. 263-270). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
corporate with the GIS technology to cater the national
Abbreviation
requirement in an effective manner.
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization

In conclusion, the High-Tech soldier application has ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

proved admirable success in future endeavours of the The CRD (Centre for Research and Development) and the
military battlefields by using the modern technology Director General Brig (Dr) STS De Silva (Rted) has
insights as locally. immensely supported for this research and warmly thank
to the Kotalawala Defence University to giving us the
References opportunity for the publication of the research outcomes
to the community.