Center for Computer Aided Design

Computerized Airborne Research Platform (CARP), Beech A-36 Bonanza

The CARP was procured with funds from CCAD to perform airborne human factors research of advanced flight deck technology.








	OPL Flight Test Crew before a data collection flight.

	The Flux gate on the wingtip is a nice touch to get accurate magnetic heading information.

	For human factors evaluations and for design of controllers and such, it is important to know the position of the flight control surfaces. To that end, we installed Space Age Control Transducers (http://www.spaceagecontrol.com/). They are really nice. The picture shows the installation for the aileron axis.

	The elevator (left) and rudder (right) transducers are mounted aft the rear bulkhead station.

	The integration of the equipment sometimes resulted in a head-to-head argument among the team.

	It is just as long a way from the front seat to the FTE position. The rack has been designed such that the over-wing emergency exits can still be accessed.

	This is what it looks like from the FTE position during a flight test. It is a loooong way to the front (well, at least in GA terms).

	The rack and equipment is a work of art. It is an understatement that at OPL, we are proud of how cool that payload package looks. For position information, we use a 20 Hz Doppler shift Novatel GPS with Omnistar differential correction. That thing is really accurate.

	The flight test engineer sits in the aft most left seat and an additional observer can be seated in the right seat. Unless both of these people gain a lot of weight, we have no weight and balance issues.

	Because the captain side overlay panel obstructs some instruments, we have developed a right side panel for the safety pilot. That panel has a full EFIS Dynon D10-A, a g-meter, a calibrated A/S indicator, and a calibrated altimeter.

	This is what it looks like when the overlay displays are in place in front of the pilot.

	And for baseline evaluations and in transit, the overlay can be removed in a jiffy.

	Two such displays can be mounted on the overlay carrier and integrated with the aircraft for flight testing.

	OPL's High Quality Portable 8.4" UXGA (LVDS) Aviation Display that is part of the Synthetic Flight Bag product.

	Air data for the experimental payload comes from a separate experimental pitot system with an angle of attack (lift reserve) hole.

	All those signals are brought to the rack. The computers communicate with each other through an Ethernet switch. The 20Hz Dopplershift Novatel GPS with Omnistar correction is on the top shelf. The right two shelves are used for the eye tracking and video recording computer.

	All those signals come out at a junction block in the middle seat row. Presently, we have radalt analog, aileron analog, elevator analog, rudder analog, RS232 to the AHRS, audio in and out to and from the stereo intercom (iPod is optional), GPS antenna on top (Novatel Omnistar), Bi-static GPS antenna on bottom, 12V DC (20A) payload power, pitot air, AOA air.

	Nick Lorch, Engineer Supreme, with his creation, the integrated eye tracker/head tracker. If you are interested in flight-hardening of equipment such as this, call us. If you are interested in ISCAN eye trackers, go to their one-page web site at http://www.iscaninc.com/HomePage.html

	The EEG Crew in front of the CARP. From right to left: Todd Macuda and Rob Erdos from NRC, Pieter Poolman and Jean Lee from EGI, and Tom Schnell from OPL

	This is our 3-camera Smarteye eye tracker, simply the most sophisticated eye tracker on the market. It uses three remote-mounted Sony HDTV cameras to determine head and binocular gaze position in 3D space without any head gear. We have repackaged the Smarteye system into a flight-hardened system that can run on anything frm 7VDC to 32VDC. The connectors on the front are used for the cameras, Ethernet, and the display.

	Here is the Smarteye system with the three cameras connected. These cameras afford a front, front-left, and front-right view of the operator head. The integration of this system in our aircraft was very simple, thanks to the Smarteye data interface. Please visit http://www.smarteye.se/home.html for details on this system.

	The scene camera is used primarily for validation and as a backup in case the head tracker does not provide perfect data. We use a global (ship-origin-based) scene camera.

	We machined all the bits and pieces (except the XY adjustment table) in-house. This sturdy setup is flight-hardened and ready for deployment in harsh environments.

	A Polhemus head tracker allows us to tie the eye data into the global (ship) coordinate system.

	For an ongoing study called Advanced Media/Portable Media (AMPM) funded by NASA LaRC, we use the original round dial instruments. We fabricated a frame that mounts at the same hardpoints as the overlay LCD, and we can thus swap the setup in minutes. We really like the SmartEye the way we have set it up in the CARP.

	In the CARP, we set up the SmartEye Pro as a 2-camera system. One additional camera could be located on the right side of the radio stack. The cameras can be removed with ease.

	The global scene camera is used for quality control during the runs and for post-run discussions. The SmartEye Pro does not depend on the global scene camera as it delivers 3D gaze data relative to the cockpit CAD model. Having a scene camera is a good idea, though, because sometimes there are objects that are fixated but not tracked in the 3D world.

	Robinson R22-Beta II visiting from Iowa Helicopters. In the background is the CARP Research Aircraft.

	Evaluation Pilot being prepared for the equipment check in the CARP. The 128-electrode EEG system is made by EGI and is relatively easy to set up and very robust to environmental noise.

	A view from the Flight Test Engineer (FTE) position in the CARP during an EEG checkout sortie. The evaluation pilot is wearing the sensor net under a cloth moisture barrier to keep the sensors in functional contact with the skin.



	"Brainwaves in Flight"

	A test pilot gets ready to pull away from the hangar. The towel is used to keep the EEG moist so that the EEG array stays in good contact with the head.