CHARLES RIVER ANALYTICS, INC. — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: N172-117

Description

Spatial disorientation (SD) and loss of situational awareness (SA) contribute to nearly a third of military aviation mishaps, posing a serious threat to military aircrews worldwide. Current approaches to mitigate mishaps due to SD and loss of SA traditionally focus on instructor-led classroom teaching that introduces aviation and sensory physiology. However, to more effectively explain human contributions and system failures in mishap events, Naval Aviation Survival Training Center (NASTC) personnel require dedicated support to rapidly and intuitively recreate past mishap events, and then distribute training materials based on these recreations into classrooms, exposing students to actual SA/SD mishap events in a controlled, simulated environment. To address these needs, we propose to design and demonstrate a System for Analyzing Flight-data to Enrich Mishap Awareness Training Tools and Enhance Readiness (SAFE-MATTERS). SAFE-MATTERS will provide mishap awareness training support via three key components: (1) a library of contributing environment, aircraft, mission, and pilot factors relevant to SA/SD mishaps; (2) an intuitive simulator engine user interface to enable rapid mishap scenario authoring and customization; and (3) an application that supports both the creation and distribution of a range of training media to classrooms.