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Optimising Human Performance by Reducing Motion Sickness and Enhancing Situation Awareness with an Intuitive Artificial 3D Earth-Fixed Visual Reference

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Optimising Human Performance by Reducing Motion Sickness and Enhancing Situation Awareness with an Intuitive Artificial 3D Earth-Fixed Visual Reference OPTIMISING HUMAN PERFORMANCE BY REDUCING MOTION SICKNESS AND ENHANCING SITUATION AWARENESS WITH AN INTUITIVE ARTIFICIAL 3D EARTH-FIXED VISUAL REFERENCE. Jelte E. Bos1,2, Mark M.J. Houben1, Jasper Lindenberg1 1 TNO Human Factors, Soesterberg, Netherlands, [email protected] 2 Research Institute MOVE, faculty of Human Movement Sciences, VU University Amsterdam. ABSTRACT Human performance has been shown to be negatively correlated with seasickness. By reducing crew, ship size, and hence redundancy, sickness induced risks increase exponentially. Although medication is effective, it also causes drowsiness. Non-pharmacological countermeasures are scarce, the most popular one being to look at the horizon. We exploited the latter by creating an artificial Earth-fixed matrix of 3D crosses, that can be used wherever outside views are scarce and visual displays are available. To test such a display we performed two experiments. In Experiment 1, 14 subjects completed a number of 20-minute trials in TNO’s Desdemona motion simulator reproducing a ship motion. The crosses were presented on a computer screen in the background of a demanding task, and on a projection screen in front of the participant. Sickness severity was rated at fixed intervals. In Experiment 2, 11 subjects completed a number of 20-minute trials in the same simulator, now reproducing an aircraft motion. No task was used in Experiment 2, but the display was extended by including a roller-coaster like track showing the trajectory to be followed ahead. Results of Experiment 1 showed that the anti-seasickness display did not interfere with the computer task per se, while it did reduce sickness due to ship motion, whether presented on the computer monitor or on the projection screen. In Experiment 2, sickness was further reduced from somewhat less than a factor of 2 when only showing the crosses (with respect to a control condition without any display), by over a factor of 4 when adding an anticipatory trajectory. These results allow for optimising operator performance and situation awareness at sea, as well as in the air and on land, as well as the performance of, e.g., troops having to perform right after a sickening transport. Keywords: human performance, operator performance, seasickness, airsickness, motion sickness, artificial horizon, visual display. 1. INTRODUCTION Human performance has been shown to suffer from motion sickness. McCauley et al. (2006), for example, estimated 90% of unadapted Utah Marine Reservists aboard HSV-2 Swift during African Lion in April 2005 to suffer from seasickness. Considering that these troops would yet have to perform after their transport, their capabilities to do so can seriously be doubted. Colwell (2000) and Bos (2004) showed that also in adapted crew, i.e., having been at sea already for two weeks, the number of failing tasks increased with their feelings of sickness as shown in Figure 2. In yet another study with the Canadian research vessel Quest (Colwell et al., 2008), crew cognitive and visual performance even showed to suffer more from seasickness than from the motions causing the sickness per se (Bos et al., 2008). Hence, counteracting seasickness, and likewise any form of motion sickness, pays. Bos JE, Houben MMJ, Lindenberg J (2012). Optimising human performance by reducing motion sickness and enhancing situation awareness with an artificial 3D Earth-fixed visual reference. MAST Europe, Malmö, Sweden, 11-13 September 1/10 Figure 1. Percentage of tasks failing due to seasickness (0 = no problems at all ... 100 = vomiting) in adapted naval crew (Bos, 2004). The most popular countermeasure against motion sickness seems to be the use of medication. Medication, however, needs to be taken well in advance to be effective and is associated with a decreased appetite, increased respiration, hyperthermia, euphoria, irritability, insomnia, confusion, tremors, convulsions, anxiety, paranoia, aggressiveness, loss of self-criticism, hot flashes, dry mouth, tachycardia, chest pain, hypertension, reduced mood, blurred vision, reduced (muscle) coordination, and/or a lack of memory. Most importantly, the majority of all medication are sedative, which is probably the most undesirable side-effect opposing their use by professionals performing critical tasks, such as flying an aircraft and operating a ship. Moreover, they require a certain time to wash out, why these side effects may still persist after cessation of the motion exposure when troops/marines typically have to do their job. More sophisticated instruments to counter motion sickness consist of reducing vehicle motion by, e.g., optimising (ship) hull form and (the location of) crew habitats, and adding appropriate ride control systems and/or anti-roll devices. Selection of unsusceptible crew or habituation training are yet another category of countermeasures. Incited by the general assumed positive effect of looking at the horizon when suffering from seasickness, we here report on the positive effect of providing an artificial Earth-fixed frame of reference when on a moving platform deprived from a natural view on the outside world, such as below deck on a ship (Experiment 1) or in an enclosed aircraft cabin (Experiment 2). Both experiments were performed in a laboratory setting using a motion platform to simulate the ship (Experiment 1) and aircraft (Experiment 2) motion, with the advantage of being able to reproduce exactly the same motion using different visual conditions. Although both experiments have been described separately before by Houben et al. (2010, Experiment 1) and Feenstra et al. (2011, Experiment 2), the current paper combines the two experiments, drawing additional conclusions based on the combined results. 2. EXPERIMENT 1 To study the effect of an Earth fixed frame of reference on seasickness, subjects were exposed to 20 minutes of simulated ship motion in several conditions with and without the artificial display. Subjects were in addition required to perform a task, so also the effect of sickness and the effect of the display thereupon could be studied in addition. More details are given by Houben et al. (2010). 2.1 Methods 2.1.1 Artificial display It was considered essential to visualise six degrees of freedom, i.e., not restricting to an artificial horizon. If a horizon would be presented in the frontal plane, only two degrees of freedom are visible: heave and roll, heave being confounded by pitch. To avoid such ambiguities we created layers of 3D crosses of equal size, suggesting water and air surfaces as shown in Figure 2. The tips of the crosses in the horizontal plane were given different colours allowing an increased situation awareness. The size of the objects and zoom factor was chosen such that a natural imagery with smoothly moving Bos JE, Houben MMJ, Lindenberg J (2012). Optimising human performance by reducing motion sickness and enhancing situation awareness with an artificial 3D Earth-fixed visual reference. MAST Europe, Malmö, Sweden, 11-13 September 2/10 objects was the result. Although roll, pitch and yaw could be inferred in an absolute sense (i.e. in degrees), surge, sway and heave could only be inferred relatively. Figure 2. Artificial image with 3D objects moving opposite the ship. This imagery was always moving opposite the ship/simulator motion (see below) such that it effectively suggested an Earth-fixed frame of reference. It was either shown on a computer monitor or projected on a screen using a beamer as further explicated below as well. 2.1.2 Simulated ship motion Motions were calculated of a recently acquired ship of the Royal Netherlands Navy, a 108 m Holland Class Patrol Vessel (see Figure 3 left). Hydrodynamic code was available to calculate ship motion depending on wave and wind conditions. For the present study a significant wave height Hs of 2.5 m, an average period T1 of 6.8 s was chosen, typical for sea state 4. The ship sailed with 12 kts 120o relative to the waves. The resulting six degrees of motion freedom were next slightly adapted to fit within the motion envelope of TNO’s Desdemona motion platform in Soesterberg, the Netherlands, used in this experiment. The main adaptation concerned filtering out the constant part of the forward velocity. The Desdemona motion platform as shown in Figure 3 consists of a cabin with a diameter of approximately 2 m, equipped with a safety chair, a modular instrument console and a three channel 120 x 40o visual of which only the centre screen was used in the current experiment. This cabin is fully gimballed allowing for unlimited angular motion about its yaw, pitch and roll axes. These gimbals can next move up and down with a stroke of 2 m, which device can bodily move over a horizontal sled of 8 m long. This sled, lastly can be rotated about a central Earth vertical axis so as to induce a sixth degree of freedom also allowing for centrifugation when the cabin is positioned off-axis. All degrees of freedom can be controlled dynamically and simultaneously. More information on this platform can be found at www.desdemona.eu. Figure 3. TNO’s Desdemona motion platform (centre), capable of simulating ship (Holland Patrol Vessel left) and aircraft (right) motion. Note that the anti-seasickness display was driven by the simulated motion, rather than the actual calculated ship motion, so as to realise a true Earth-fixed frame of reference. The current experiment can therefore be considered to be a veridical anti motion sickness experiment, and not one dealing with simulator sickness. Here, simulator sickness may be defined as sickness occurring in a simulator Bos JE, Houben MMJ, Lindenberg J (2012). Optimising human performance by reducing motion sickness and enhancing situation awareness with an artificial 3D Earth-fixed visual reference. MAST Europe, Malmö, Sweden, 11-13 September 3/10 when it does not occur in the condition that is simulated.
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