Tactile Situation Awareness System
Abstract
The purpose of the CWP Tactile Situation Awareness System (TSAS) program is to deliver a technology to the aviation helicopter community that will reduce the workload of pilots, increase the situation awareness of pilots, and reduce the incidence of helicopter Degraded Visual Environment (DVE) mishaps, especially brownout mishaps in the desert environment. TSAS is a garment containing tactile stimulators (tactors) partially covering the torso that provide aircraft flight control parameters through the sense of touch in an intuitive fashion. During both simulation and in-flight tests prior to the CWP effort, pilots have demonstrated the ability to non- visually hover helicopters and transition to forward flight, while consistently reporting reduced workload and increased situation awareness. At the beginning of the CWP effort in 2008 the state-of-the-art for garments with embedded tactors was twofold: 1) an aircooled vest with three rows of pneumatic tactors (8 tactors per row) and 2) a single belt with 8 early generation electromechanical tactors. Both systems provided drift information in the azimuth.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 15, 2012
- Accession Number
- AD1231327
Entities
People
- Angus Rupert
- Art Estrada
Organizations
- United States Army Aeromedical Research Lab