Enhanced Flight Simulator

Modern flight simulators utilize combinations of motion, visual stimulation, and occasionally tactile body stimulation. Despite advances in these fields, simulators remain limited in the amount and type of motion simulation they can impart to a pilot. Direct vestibular stimulation can generate continuous sensed motions, and therefore holds promise for improving flight simulators by incorporating vestibular cueing with more traditional stimulations. Our solution is based on combining a small, lightweight motion base and a high-end visual display with a vestibular stimulation device. Incorporating vestibular cueing into a flight simulator will allow us to leverage the motion simulation generated by the vestibular system to design a motion platform that is smaller and lighter than conventional platforms, while still providing the full system with far increased capabilities over traditional flight simulators. The team assembled for this work is ideally suited to carry out the research and development of the proposed system. The clinical team from the Mayo Clinic includes expertise in military flight physiology as well as decades of experience in vestibular studies. The Infoscitex team is similarly equipped to tackle the system designs and move the project towards a commercial product.BENEFITS: Incorporating vestibular cueing into a flight simulator will allow us to design a motion platform that is smaller and lighter than conventional platforms, while still providing far increased capabilities over traditional flight simulators. This will be of great interest both to the military and to the entertainment industry. In addition, the results obtained will be the first necessary steps to developing an artificial vestibular system. Such a device has the promise of a considerable market in a patient population suffering the after-effects of disease or traumatic injury that has affected their native vestibular system.