Barrera manages a research portfolio within the Airmen Systems Directorate that supports AFRL’s Autonomy in Motion effort. She advances the mission by engaging in program management activities. Her job is to lead the development of pilot vehicle interfaces (PVI) between Manned and Unmanned Teaming (MUMT) in anti-access, area denial (A2/AD) environments. Barrera monitors various projects that strive to minimize the manned flight lead’s workload and maximize the overall situational awareness.
“The PVI interacts with vehicle behaviors developed by the Aerospace Systems Directorate,” she explains. Barerra credits this “great partnership with RQ” along with support from various branches within and outside of the warfighter interface division in maturing relevamt technologies.
Barrera explains that one way to minimize workload involves voice commands. However, she says that reliable speech recognition systems must overcome noise in the environment. Other divisions within the Airman Systems Directorate conduct research in this area and provide technology to address the shortfalls in voice recognition.
While several challenges still face the Manned and Unmanned Teaming (MUMT) problem, Barrera says that she is “lucky enough to have numerous, highly talented, research teams to help tackle the problems.”
In addition to her civilian position, Barrera is also involved with Operation Tech Warrior (TW) an immersion event sponsored by the Air Force Small Business Innovative Research / Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) Program. The National Center for Medical Readiness (NCMR) Fairborn, Ohio serves as the host for this annual event.
Barerra acted as the logistics, communications, and network lead for three years and in 2018, Lt Col Shahady promoted her to Operations Director. As the AFRL lead for this event, she is responsible for all aspects of the exercise other than the technology and the mission planning for technical demonstrations.
Event participants form a group known as the Warrior Squadron, which is open to all military and government civilians. Experienced instructors lead this squadron through various operations and scenarios designed for military training and field-testing of various warfighting technologies.
The goal is to bring scientists and engineers (S&Es) closer to the warfighter experience by taking them out of offices and labs and allowing them to experience a realistic military environment. This field insertion provides S&Es with a better idea of how soldiers use technology.
“It’s about exposing them to how our warfighters think,” said Barrera.
She returns to the event each year to “watch the Warriors, initially just a group of strangers, learn to work together and become a functional unit in a short period of time.”
The event also offers technology providers, from both AFRL and small business, a unique opportunity to demonstrate their devices and collect data based on experiments with end users.
“The warriors are able to really use [these devices], get their hands on them, get briefings on them and then provide feedback,” said Barrera
“Everything that you see during the event is a real military device,” said Barrera. “The Warriors carry real weapons.”
She explained that staff members have a great deal of responsibility because of the realness of the exercises and the location.
“We are not out on a range or set away from neighborhoods or on base,” she explained.
“It is a huge responsibility to ensure not only the safety of the staff, but of the families in the surrounding neighborhoods,” Barrera said.