Hands Free Data Collection for Aircraft Maintainers

Hands-free access to maintenance, logistics, and emerging IT Systems will enhance the ability of maintainers to concentrate on performing critical aircraft maintenance functions without being interrupted to physically enter or retrieve maintenance data. The focus of this research project will be systematic and emphasize the integration of innovative, cutting-edge technologies that provide effective, efficient, and transparent maintenance data capture and information feedback to the flight-line technician while improving the accuracy of maintenance data collected. Input technologies to be evaluated will include haptic devices, and devices that track movement, such as head-trackers, eye-trackers, and magnetic or optical motion trackers. Effective human-computer interaction techniques to "attentive environments" will also be considered, such as multi-modal input methods that will include avatar and agent data translation taxonomies. This technology should also be able to withstand the noise, vibration, and generally harsh environment of the flightline. The concept of this Phase I research project will enable interoperability with existing legacy logistic systems, as well as the future autonomic logistics systems of the F-35.