Spatial Orientation Enhancement System

Objective:

The goal of this research program was to develop, integrate, evaluate, and refine a multi-sensory system that provides spatial orientation cues to pilots to avoid loss of control due to spatial disorientation and loss of situation awareness. The SOES Program combined the existing concept of Synthetic Vision and enhanced the inherent spatial orientation capabilities of that system with tactile and audio cues to convey aircraft attitude. Funding was provided by the NASA Langley Research Center under the Aviation Safety Program (AvSP), the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), and Rockwell Collins.

Equipment:

A full-body tactor suit and accompanying tactor helmet was developed by the team. The suit consisted of 34 vibrating tactors, each of which could be controlled individually. The suit was driven via a wireless data link and had onboard battery power. The Dynamic Environment Simulator (DES) is a centrifuge-based flight simulator at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) capable of delivering sustained acceleration to a pilot along all three axes. The DES consists of a 162 metric ton planetary arm with a rotational fork and a gimbaled pod. In addition to the tactor suit, we also tested the effectiveness of a sonification system, a Synthetic Vision display system, and a background attitude indicator (BAI).

Results

The Synthetic Vision System (SVS) and the Background Attitude Indicator (BAI) appear to help in roll control; the roll errors were smaller and more narrowly distributed than in a normal EFIS display. The tactors and sonification performed worse than the SVS but better than the baseline EFIS.

Discussion and References

Etherington T., Schnell T., Keller M. , "Spatial Orientation Enhancement System (SOES)", Final report for SOES Contract FA8650-04-2-6411, Prepared for Rockwell Collins, 400 Collins Rd. NE, Cedar Rapids, IA 52498, 2006

Sponsors and partners

Rockwell Collins

projects:

Spatial Orientation Enhancement System (SOES)
Display Latency

AFRL

projects:

Spatial Orientation Enhancement System (SOES)