SONIC: Sensor Operations via Naturalistic Interactive Control

Aircraft maintenance work is a mission-critical function posing various potential hazards to human performers that must be accounted for through health and safety monitoring practices. The ability to continuously and reliably measure the atmospheric conditions surrounding each worker in confined spaces and network these data to a remote monitoring station would greatly improve worker safety, while reducing the manpower costs relative to current processes. To support this need, Aptima will deliver the Sensor Operations via Naturalistic Interactive Control (SONIC) technology, a multimodal user interaction framework optimized for use within highly immersive and data-rich environments to provide an intuitive, naturalistic way for users to interact and collaborate with distributed sensors, systems, and teammates in the operational environment. The goal of this effort is to advance SONIC for application toward Air Logistics Complex (ALC) health and safety monitoring by integrating atmospheric sensor readings and a data network infrastructure to remotely assess key indicators of hazards and risks imposed on maintenance technicians working in confined spaces. This work will position SONIC for eventual production, installation, and deployment to support ALC operations.