Increasing helicopter flight safety in maritime operations with a head-mounted display
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Increasing helicopter flight safety in maritime operations with a head‑mounted display Christian Walko1 · Bianca Schuchardt1 Received: 8 October 2019 / Revised: 1 July 2020 / Accepted: 21 September 2020 © Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. 2020
Abstract To increase flight safety and operational availability for helicopters, the potential benefits of helmet-mounted displays (HMD) are investigated, with a focus on maritime flight operations. Helicopters have long downtimes, due to harsh weather conditions or other visual impairments, especially in maritime scenarios. Flying in these poor conditions can drastically reduce flight safety. It is often difficult to recognize the horizon due to sea fog, and the absence of reference objects can complicate the maritime flight. These conditions and especially the downtimes cost money or, at worst, life’s. Therefore, DLR integrated the augmented reality glasses Microsoft HoloLens into DLR’s simulator AVES to use it as HMD for pilots. Subsequently, displays and symbology were developed and evaluated. To carry out a piloted simulator study, a maritime scenario was created to measure changes in the pilots’ performance with the HMD, like workload or situational awareness. The paper focuses (a) on the integration of the HoloLens into the simulator with its challenges, solutions and findings, (b) on the symbology and (c) on the piloted simulator study. Both the quality of the HoloLens as HMD and the study results are very positive. The pilots rated high usability, reduced workload, increased situational awareness and increased safety. Keywords Augmented reality · Helmet-mounted display · HoloLens · Conformal display · Human–machine interface · Pilot assistance · Helicopter · Simulator Abbreviations AA Anti-aliasing ACT Active control technology AR Augmented reality ASL Above sea level AVES Air vehicle simulator BIV Image intensifier CPU Central processing unit CS Coordinate system DVE Degraded visual environment FHS Flying helicopter simulator FLI First limit indicator FPS Frames per second GVE Good visual environment HDD Head-down display HMD Helmet-mounted display * Christian Walko [email protected] Bianca Schuchardt [email protected] 1
Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, Institute of Flight Systems, Brunswick, Germany
IFR Instrument flight rules LIDAR Light detection and ranging SART Situational awareness rating technique SUS System usability scale VFR Visual flight rules
1 Introduction With the strong growth of shipping, offshore wind power and offshore drilling, the number of related helicopter operations is also growing. A high operational availability is desirable in almost all mission cases. Especially maritime helicopter operations are challenged with highly dynamic weather changes, rare opportunities for forced landing and often no reference objects to monitor the helicopter attitude. Maritime emergencies with lives in danger usually arise in bad weather conditions. Due to these bad weather cond
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