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laserBIRD used in
Development of Synthetic Vision
Display for NASA Aviation
Safety Project
Burlington, VT (USA),
March 25, 2003: Ascension
Technology’s laserBIRD™
motion tracker is being used
in the development of advanced
synthetic vision displays
for commercial aircraft. The
Synthetic Vision Systems
(SVS) project, part
of the NASA Aviation
Safety Program, is
pioneering technologies to
eliminate low visibility conditions
as a cause of aircraft accidents.
The project’s goal is affordable,
certifiable displays to provide
pilots with intuitive out-the-window
terrain and obstacle information.
The laserBIRD tracker coupled
to a Microvision Helmet-Mounted
Display and the Synthetic
Vision Image Generators together
provide a head-tracked synthetic
view of the world. According
to Randall E. Bailey of the
Crew/Vehicle Integration Branch
at NASA’s Langley Research
Center, the concept is to
provide the pilot with an
unobstructed view of the world
to replicate clear-day flight
operations.
The displays will show the
flight crew terrain, ground
obstacles, air traffic, landing
and approach patterns, runway
surfaces and other relevant
data despite weather conditions.
The use of head-tracking will
extend the pilot’s field-of-view,
effectively allowing the pilot
to look in any direction and
see a representative image
of the outside world.
“Our current conventional
display concepts, using instrument
panel or head-up displays,
are limited to aircraft-fixed
views. The head-tracked, advanced
SV display concept can present
an unrestricted view of the
‘synthetic’ world around the
aircraft,” Bailey explains.
LaserBIRD delivers highly-accurate
position and orientation tracking
without environmental interference
or distortion. Its miniaturized
scanner reflects low-level
laser beams throughout a designated
space. Sensors attached to
the tracked object—a HMD in
this case—instantly detect
scanning beams. These signals
are then directed back to
the scanner’s DSP electronics
for measurement computation.
Generating precise data with
low noise and minimal jitter,
laserBIRD makes 240 measurements
per second. Sensor position
accuracy is 1.0 mm RMS with
sensor angle accuracy at 1
degree RMS. “We selected laserBIRD
because it advertised lower
latency and higher accuracies
with fewer restrictions to
installation than most other
trackers,” says Bailey.
Researchers at four NASA
field installations have been
working with the FAA and aviation
industry on the project for
three years. In September
2001, a Boeing 757 passenger
jet was first transformed
into a “flying simulator”
equipped with the 3D synthetic
vision displays. The aircraft,
known as ARIES (Airborne Research
Integrated Experiments System)
is loaded with a computer
database depicting selected
flight terrain. The ARIES
aircraft allows pilots to
test the synthetic vision
displays in their design phase.
At this point, the first
Synthetic Vision display products
are entering the marketplace.
The advanced Synthetic Vision
Concepts, the development
of which uses Microvision’s
HMD and Ascension’s laserBIRD,
won’t be available for several
years, although they do offer
significant operational advantages
over the earlier systems.
More information on the NASA
Aviation Safety Program is
available on the Internet
at http://avsp.larc.nasa.gov.
Information about laserBIRD
and Ascension Technology’s
other motion tracking products
is available at www.ascension-tech.com
-- end --
For Immediate Release
Contact: Jack Scully (802)
893-6657 or e-mail: jscully@ascension-tech.com
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