Embry-Riddle to train student pilots with virtual reality

Soon, student pilots at Embry-Riddle’s Daytona Beach Campus in Florida will be able to practice pre-flight inspections of a Cessna 172 aircraft in the new Virtual Reality Laboratory.

“Embry-Riddle is keeping pace with the evolution of virtualand augmented reality technologies across many industries,” said DanielFriedenzohn, associate dean of the College of Aviation. “We’re developingvirtual systems to train our students more effectively in a safe environment.” Insome cases, he added, virtual practice might even help reduce students’flight-training costs, if they can master a thorough simulated pre-flightinspection before attempting the real thing on Embry-Riddle’s flight line.

The HTC Vive Pro virtual reality headset – developed for thevideo-game industry – allows students to walk around a realistic version of theschool’s flight line, complete with rows of Cessna 172 aircraft. Currently inits final stage of development at Embry-Riddle, the simulated “172 Walk-Around”scenario takes students through a step-by-step pre-flight aircraft inspectionthat is required before flight. The simulation provides valuable practice incompleting inspections, but more importantly, Friedenzohn said, it testsstudents’ ability to spot potentially hazardous defects.

Friedenzohn credits College of Aviation Dean Alan Stolzerwith setting forth the vision for a Virtual Lab to complement Embry-Riddle’sexisting Advanced Simulation Center. “Virtual and augmented realitytechnologies have become increasingly important to a variety of educational aswell as business goals,” Stolzer noted.

In February, Trevor Goodwin, an expert in creating virtualreality experiences, was brought on board to manage Embry-Riddle’s VirtualReality Lab.

With the help of faculty, industry advisors and studentemployees, the lab will ultimately offer various simulated scenarios. Forexample, students will be able to fly a virtual F/A-18 Hornet as it attempts aparticularly tricky maneuver: connecting with a military version of the Boeing767 for refueling in flight. Future aviation maintenance technicians at Embry-Riddlewill be able to repair virtual engines, augmented by diagrams and text prompts.

Improving the efficiency of aviation training remainscritically important amid a global shortage of highly qualified pilots andmaintenance technicians: Over the next 20 years, Boeing has projected, some790,000 new pilots and 754,000 aviation maintenance technicians will be neededto meet worldwide industry demands.

Enhancing Education

A key goal for Embry-Riddle’s Virtual Reality Lab will be tostudy and confirm the effectiveness of all training systems. “We’re not simplyembracing new technologies because they’re kind of cool,” Friedenzohn said.“Our faculty are conducting research to assess how well those technologiesactually work to enhance students’ learning.”

Assistant Professor of Spaceflight Operations ErikSeedhouse, for instance, has submitted an application to assess theeffectiveness of virtual reality for learning in various environments.Seedhouse, who brought the simulated International Space Station toEmbry-Riddle’s new Virtual Reality Lab, has so far made the experienceavailable to students in two of his courses: Introduction to Spaceflight andSpace Station. In the Space Station course, students roamed around the virtualISS while Seedhouse assessed their ability to perform specific tasks bothinside and outside the simulated facility.

The Virtual Reality Lab is equipped with the HTC Vive Provirtual reality system, including a head-mounted tracker/display, two hand-heldcontrollers with haptic (touch) feedback, and two infrared tracking beacons.The beacons define the space where users can move while they are eithertethered to the custom-built simulation computer or wirelessly connected. Theheart of the system is a custom-built, high-end PC workstation with awater-cooled 4.2 GHz Intel i7-7700K CPU, GeForce 1080 Graphics Card, and 16 GBof Ram.