Synthetic Augmentation of the Flight Environment in Head-Mounted Displays (SAFE HMD)
For helicopter flight in Degraded Visual Environments (DVE), pilot assistance systems are under exploration at the Institute of Helicopter Technology. By using a see-through Head-Mounted-Display (HMD), 3D-conformal information is projected into the pilot's field of view to virtually expand the decreased visibility.
In addition to conventional primary flight instrumentation, synthetic cues, like a landing zone or a highway-in-the-sky, can be presented overlaid onto the outside scenery. Furthermore, terrain and object data, e.g. buildings from data bases, can be displayed for the pilot scene-linked to avoid collisions.
The increasing amount of displayed information can lead to problems in the perception and mental workload of the pilot. Thus, pilot-in-the-loop simulations are conducted with the Rotorcraft Simulation Environment (ROSIE) to evaluate different display concepts and to derive improvement
Video Helicopter flight with Head Mounted Display in degraded visual environment
Publications
- Viertler, F., Krammer, C., Hajek, M.: Analyzing Visual Clutter of 3D-Conformal HMD Solutions for Rotorcraft Pilots in Degraded Visual Environment, 41st European Rotorcraft Forum, Munich, Germany, 2015
- Viertler, F., Hajek, M.: Dynamic registration of an optical see-through HMD into a wide field-of-view rotorcraft flight simulation environment, SPIE DSS Conference on Head- and Helmet-Mounted Displays XX: Design and Applications, no. 9470-30, Baltimore, USA, 2015