<title>Realities of using visually coupled systems for training applications</title>
Proceedings of SPIE, Oct 30, 1992
Visually coupled system developments have led to the concept of a Virtual Cockpit known as the Su... more Visually coupled system developments have led to the concept of a Virtual Cockpit known as the Super Cockpit. Advances in Super Cockpit enabling technologies has resulted in an exciting spin-off called Virtual Environments or Virtual Reality. Press release claim almost limitless possibilities for this technology. Unfortunately the level of technology required to achieve actual Virtual Reality (VR) has still to be realized. Inspection of current VR systems readily reveals several fundamental problems. However, by fully understanding the limitations in VR technology and the complex human factors interface it is possible to apply VR to many applications, especially in training. In order to create virtual reality the technology limitations must be understood and overcome. Whatever solution is eventually derived, it must fully address the complex human factors issue. This paper will review the realities of virtual environments in terms of the limitations in technology and the apparent lack of human factors understanding. The establishment and development of the British Aerospace Virtual Cockpit Facility at Brough, one of the UK's largest Virtual Environmental laboratories has provided an insight into the key issues of virtual reality. These facilities are engaged in the evaluation of fundamental engineering and human factors issues. In order to illustrate the major problems and how they can be overcome, the results of some of these studies are given.
A key issue in successful developing complex systems is how to assess the performance of architec... more A key issue in successful developing complex systems is how to assess the performance of architecture model during the development process. Traditional assessment techniques are subjective and usually highlight weaknesses rather than provide quantitative and objective results. In addition, the increasing complexity of systems nowadays; has led to a move from federated systems which were closed and target unique to embedded open systems, which extends new criteria to be considered in the assessment. This paper provides an insight into how Evidential Reasoning (ER) approach as the specific Multi-Attribute Decision Making (MADM) method can be used as a type of system assessment technique. The theory and implementation details of ER with an initial case study are presented. EXPLORATION OF QUANTITATIVE ASSESSMENT IN SYSTEMS ARCHITECTURE USING EVIDENTIAL REASONING.
Over the past century significant achievements in technological development have transformed huma... more Over the past century significant achievements in technological development have transformed human life across a diverse number of sectors (for example Aerospace & Defence, Automotive, Construction, Energy, Transportation, Consumer Electronics, IT, Pharmaceutical & Healthcare and Telecommunications). More recently, the associated systems have grown in terms of their complexity and inter-connectedness. The sheer rate of change and interdependence of these systems is now putting at risk our ability to fully understand and predict their behavior. Exploiting systems engineering and the associated tools/techniques will be crucial if we are to manage future complex systems. Systems engineering is used here, to indicate the broad area of complexity science, systems science and systems engineering, and has deliberately steered clear of a precise definition. This paper builds on an earlier proposition for establishing a set of indicative grand challenges for systems engineering research with the objective of inspiring a research agenda for the systems engineering academic/industry community. In this respect a grand challenge is recognised as being one or two decades in advance; their achievement being regarded as a major milestone or breakthrough in the advancement of knowledge or technology.
Soldier system assessment under uncertainty with evidential reasoning
Along with the increasing of new equipment based capabilities, the physiological burden on the di... more Along with the increasing of new equipment based capabilities, the physiological burden on the dismounted soldier keeps on growing, which leads to the limitation in the quantity and types of missions that can be carried out. In this research, a methodology is developed to solve the burden problem from the system assessment point of view. Comparing with other relevant research, the new methodology not only provides quantitative performance estimate of the soldier with the capability of handling fragmentary and incomplete data with hybrid format in nature (qualitative and quantitative), but also restrains the assessment complexity to an acceptable level.
Addressing systems verification of autonomous systems through Bi-directional model transformations: A systems model driven architecture approach
This paper presents a domain modeling approach that employs novel bi-directional model transforma... more This paper presents a domain modeling approach that employs novel bi-directional model transformations to enable the verification of an autonomous system's functions and performance. The innovative systems based model driven architecture approach allows important aspects of systems engineering to be undertaken closer to deployment, when the conditions under which the system is to be used will be more readily apparent.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, Jul 18, 2005
The grid has the potential to transform collaborative scientific investigations through the use o... more The grid has the potential to transform collaborative scientific investigations through the use of closely coupled computational and visualization resources, which may be geographically distributed, in order to harness greater power than is available at a single site. Scientific applications to benefit from the grid include visualization, computational science, environmental modelling and medical imaging. Unfortunately, the diversity, scale and location of the required resources can present a dilemma for the scientific worker because of the complexity of the underlying technology. As the scale of the scientific problem under investigation increases so does the nature of the scientist's interaction with the supporting infrastructure. The increased distribution of people and resources within a grid-based environment can make resource sharing and collaborative interaction a critical factor to their success. Unless the technological barriers affecting user accessibility are reduced, there is a danger that the only scientists to benefit will be those with reasonably high levels of computer literacy. This paper examines a number of important human factors of user interaction with the grid and expresses this in the context of the science undertaken by RealityGrid, a project funded by the UK e-Science programme. Critical user interaction issues will also be highlighted by comparing grid computational steering with supervisory control systems for local and remote access to the scientific environment. Finally, implications for future grid developers will be discussed with a particular emphasis on how to improve the scientists' access to what will be an increasingly important resource.
A Taxonomy of Technology: Defining Augmented Reality
Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society ... Annual Meeting, Jul 1, 2000
This paper outlines a functional decomposition of Augmented Reality (AR), from both a technologic... more This paper outlines a functional decomposition of Augmented Reality (AR), from both a technological and human factors perspective, with a view to providing a coherent and structured framework for its development and evaluation in the future. Without a formal framework to underpin the description and development of AR technology, confusion may arise in comparing systems and applications. The proposed framework allows for the user's capabilities to be described in all their sensory detail, which, in turn, furnishes the taxonomy with a power to account for these in the development of advanced technologies. This top-level analysis can then be decomposed into discrete elements representing the enabling technologies that make up a given AR domain. This provides a much richer descriptive power within the framework and consistent criteria for comparing systems, applications and indeed conventional human-computer interfaces with AR. Furthermore, as it is a ‘user-centred’ approach, the framework does not assume that visual augmentation is the only means of providing an AR facility. Implicit in the framework is the notion that AR can be delivered through other sensory augmentation, even if the technical means is not available at the moment. In this way, the taxonomy offers a concise and precise means of categorising the technology, understanding the application, and, ultimately, supporting the user of an AR system.
Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments, Dec 1, 2006
In order to gain a greater insight into the relationships that exist between entities in three-di... more In order to gain a greater insight into the relationships that exist between entities in three-dimensional (3D) datasets, the scientific, engineering, and arts communities are increasingly using interactive visualization and virtual reality (VR) techniques. They have realized that interactively visualizing 3D datasets from different viewpoints makes it possible to achieve a better understanding of the underlying dataset structure. Viewpoints can be either static or dynamic as in an interactive fly-through. However, unskilled users often select flight paths (or viewing situations) that cause nauseous effects that detrimentally distract the user from the task at hand. Interactions between multiple users or virtual agents in a virtual environment present further challenges because it is necessary for the user to monitor multiple activities concurrently. If the user has to make decisions based on what is taking place in a complex virtual environment, then it is very important that correct and appropriate viewpoints are maintained. For example, flight simulator debriefing tools require first and third person viewing so that the actions that have taken place can be understood. In these situations there is a need to select multiple viewpoints for each participant. Consequently (because of the high cognitive load), maintaining control over a number of different viewpoints is very challenging. Within this paper the authors describe the real-time automatic display controller they have developed for third person/stealth views of a multi-participant virtual environment-where it is important for users to gain a global and localized understanding of the tasks being performed. They discuss important cinematic conventions and how these are set in the context of characterizing a 3D communication medium, as well as determining their role for optimal viewing parameters. The real time automatic display controller is of particular benefit to applications such as scientific visualization, flight simulation, engineering/architectural modeling, scene of accident reconstruction/analysis, and other complex human-system behavior analysis applications.
Bridging the Gaps in a Model-Based System Engineering Workflow by Encompassing Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation
IEEE Systems Journal, Dec 1, 2013
ABSTRACT This paper discusses how gaps in a model-based system engineering (MBSE) workflow can be... more ABSTRACT This paper discusses how gaps in a model-based system engineering (MBSE) workflow can be bridged through the use of special model transformation tools. The goal is to create an integrated workflow tool chain to facilitate integration of various subsystems and verification of the overall system performance to meet a set of desired system requirements. This paper describes an implementation in a model-based representation that encompasses real system hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) components to verify the effectiveness and capability of the development platform. Discussion is provided on the developed model transformation processes that make this possible and is explained through the application of our approach to the development of subsystems for a vehicle system. The key contributions of research include: 1) identification of a suitable model-based systems design methodology and toolset (based on IBM Rhapsody/Mathworks Simulink combination) to include HIL for system verification; 2) design and development of model transformation tools to facilitate bidirectional transformation of an IBM Rhapsody model to a Simulink model; and 3) successful mapping between platform independent models and platform-specific models involving HIL. The research outcomes show particularly promising results that are anticipated to benefit the MBSE community.
One of the key assumptions in Endsley's three-level Situation Awareness (SA) model is the critica... more One of the key assumptions in Endsley's three-level Situation Awareness (SA) model is the critical role of mental models in the development and maintenance of SA. We explored a prescriptive way of modeling this essential mental process of the fire incident commanders' fire ground assessment. The modeling was drawn from the Fast and Frugal Heuristics (FFHs) program, given the strong parallels between its contentions on ecological rationality and the environment demanding of the emergency response context. This paper addresses a number of issues being encountered in the attempt of our empirical investigation.
Evolution of maintenance strategies in oil and gas industries: the present achievements and future trends
Engineering Systems maintenance and reliability challenges have drawn serious attention of resear... more Engineering Systems maintenance and reliability challenges have drawn serious attention of researchers and industrialists all over the world due to continuous evolution, innovation and complexity of modern technologies deployed in manufacturing and production systems. These systems need very high reliability and availability due to business, mission and safety critical nature of their operations. This paper reviews evolution of systems or equipment maintenance strategies practiced over the years in complex industrial and manufacturing systems such as oil and gas production systems, satellite communication system, spacecraft navigational system, nuclear power plants, etc. The paper also examines the current maintenance and reliability philosophies, their limitations and highlights major breakthroughs and achievements with regards to complex engineering systems maintenance. Intelligent maintenance, a novel approach to complex engineering systems maintenance and reliability sustainment is proposed. The proposed approach reintegrates operation and maintenance phase into system development life cycle, adopts advanced engineering tools and methodology in developing condition-based predictive maintenance, an intelligent maintenance system with resilient, autonomous and adaptive capabilities. Application of Neural network approach to multisensor data fusion for condition-based predictive maintenance system is briefly presented.
A Comprehensive Virtual Environment Laboratory Facility
Elsevier eBooks, 1993
Abstract Virtual reality has emerged from a concept known as a ‘visually coupled system’. In esse... more Abstract Virtual reality has emerged from a concept known as a ‘visually coupled system’. In essence it is a display or ‘porthole’ through a computer synthesized world that is updated with respect to head position [1,2]. Serious practitioners of this technology routinely describe these systems as virtual environments. The first virtual environment systems were essentially based on the concept of a visually coupled system. Recently, desktop VR systems have emerged which are based on computer aided design (CAD) tools with animation. Whether or not these systems are true virtual environment systems could be discussed at some length, but the purpose of this paper is to discuss the immersive virtual environment systems. A virtual environment system involves a number of different scientific/engineering disciplines that have rarely been brought together before, and as a consequence the interface between these disciplines is not fully understood. Added to this is the problem that manufacturers do not understand the human factors element. Careful and critical examination of many systems reveals a clear lack of understanding by manufacturers when integrating VR technology to human factors [3]. To integrate effectively, a ‘certain’ level of technology and human factors must be available to, and fully understood by, manufacturers of these systems. The labelling of 3D modelling on a computer screen as a virtual reality environment causes confusion, and although it could be discussed at length, the main object of this paper (as previously mentioned) is to discuss virtual environmental systems and the necessary research and development required to integrate a human operation into a virtual environment.
A grid-enabled lightweight computational steering client: a .NET PDA implementation
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, Aug 5, 2005
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