Comparison of Reality versus Integrated Reality during In-Flight Maritime Helicopter Hover Manoeuvres
Andrew Law,
Sion Jennings,
Gregory Craig,
Sukriti Kumar,
Kris Ellis,
Arthur Gubbels,
Alanna Wall,
Perry Comeau
Presented at the Vertical Flight Society 79th Annual Forum & Technology Display
Crew Stations and Human Factors Technical Session - Paper 1347
13 pages
Abstract:
The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) recently developed an Integrated Reality In-flight Simulator (IRIS) allowing helicopter pilots to fly the NRC's Bell 412 helicopter while wearing a virtual reality headset and experiencing real-world multi-sensory cues. The first IRIS prototype simulated maritime helicopter ship-deck landing operations to augment current flight test and flight training methods. Two NRC test pilots evaluated the IRIS prototype using a customized mission task element (MTE) that represented maritime helicopter hover manoeuvres under three different Visual Cueing Environments (VCEs). Pilot performance and workload was evaluated in each cueing environment along with the effect of simulated airwake turbulence. Both pilots successfully completed the MTE using the Reality Field VCE with moderate workload, but found the Integrated Reality (IR) Field VCE to be higher workload due to poor VR resolution of subtle cues required for longitudinal positioning. By comparison, the pilots successfully completed the MTE using the IR Ship VCE with similar performance levels to the Reality Field. This evaluation demonstrated that the IRIS prototype is suitable for in-flight simulation of shipboard helicopter manoeuvres.
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