Applications of VR and Eye-Tracking in the Desdemona Motion Simulator
The Desdemona simulator at TNO (the Netherlands Organisation for applied scientific research) in the Netherlands has a very large motion envelope that enables unlimited attitude and sustained G-force simulation. These unique motion capabilities make it possible to realistically simulate critical phases of flight in which a lack of spatial awareness and even disorientation create hazardous flying conditions. To train pilot readiness, Desdemona offers mountain flying courses for helicopter crews, upset recovery for civil instructor pilots and deep-stall recoveries for F-16 pilots.
To improve the visual field-of-view inside the Desdemona simulator and to further enhance the immersion of pilots in the training scenarios, we developed methods to use Virtual Reality (VR) inside the moving Desdemona cockpit. More recently, the incorporation of eye-tracking in VR headsets opened up possibilities to analyse pilot scan-patterns in real-time during the training. To explore the technical feasibility of analysing eye-tracking data in real-time, we asked 10 airline pilots to fly a standard circuit in a simulated turbo-prop trainer aircraft.
This presentation explains the use of VR in the Desdemona motion simulator and the first results of using eye-tracking data to analyse scan-patterns in real-time are presented.