Working collaboratively on advances in projectors-free flight simulators: Benefits for professional training of pilots by deployment of XR technologies
The interdisciplinary WrightBros neXt project is designed as an extension, both in terms of the scope and the Consortium composition, of the “collaborative factory of the flight simulators branch of RISE” which was funded under H2020 programme and successfully completed as a WrightBroS project. Based on its results, the new concept of research on projectors-free flight simulators is proposed as an answer to challenges which occur when novel eXtended Reality (XR) technologies are applied to the professional training of pilots. The goal of the new project is to:
- develop innovative, projector-free, flight simulators by using various XR technologies, and
- compare the influence on human perception of various XR technologies used in these projectors-free flight simulators vs. classical setup with projector-generated scenery.
The wide range of visualization setups developed in a collaboration between the Coordinator: Silesian University of Technology (SUT), Poland, flight simulators manufacturer: Virtual Reality Media (VRM), Slovakia, and software developer: LG Nexera (NXR), Austria, will be then tested by pilots during experimental sessions in Virtual Flight Laboratory at SUT. In such sessions, the pilots will wear a mobile EEG device, capturing data about the influence of a given display system used in the flight simulator on cognitive load and other brain activities. The assessment of the cognitive load, as a measure of the mental effort required to complete a task, will be made by SUT scientists in an interdisciplinary collaboration with the researchers from Psychology Department of University of Zadar (UOZ), Croatia. The EEG signals will be also analyzed by secondees from Dnipro University of Technology (DUT), Ukraine, hosted by SUT specialists experienced in signal processing and machine learning. The results will be used to predict real-time performance, fatigue, and stress levels of pilots testing a particular XR visualisation system used in the flight simulator.
