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To ensure safe mission completion, Army aviators must be prepared to execute appropriate emergency procedures (EPs) in a range of situations. Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR) technologies provide novel opportunities to enhance the performance of emergency procedures by presenting them in powerful simulations of the operational environment. Currently, USAARL is developing a VR EP research simulator to support systematic, human performance research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) programs to investigate and thereby enhance the effective, safe execution of EPs. Factors to be investigated include workload, flight maneuver, displays, multisensory stimuli, and aircrew coordination, as well psychophysiological and operational stressors known to potentially impact EP execution. The USAARL EP simulator is being developed and operates within the Unity Real-Time Development Platform currently instantiated with HTC Vive Pro hardware. In order to maximize immersion, virtual reality gloves are the user's method of controlling the simulation. Pupil Labs hardware and software has been integrated with the HTC Vive Pro to record, archive, and analyze synchronous, time stamped oculometric data. Engine fire and a single-engine failure are the emergencies that have been implemented to date in the EP simulator. One mode of operation permits the user to passively experience the EP with no required input. Other modes require the participant to execute the EP with predetermined cueing stimuli ranging from substantial step-by-step cueing to no cueing. Future work will incorporate additional EPs into standard maneuvers with defined physiological stressors.
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