THE PROBLEM

Improving landing and flight safety in low visibility conditions or when the on board systems fail is high priority for aviation companies worldwide. Synthetic Vision Systems  are available for pilots on some modern Head-Up Displays (HUD) but still much work is required to make the system more usable and cost-effective.

THE CHALLENGE

In 2011 we were contacted by MSTUCA – Moscow State University for Civil Aviation – to help identify and develop a solution that could make flight safer using AR displays also on common and low cost airplanes.

THE SOLUTION

We co-founded a spin-off (Aviareal llc) and designed a system to support pilots during landing and operations that allows to overlay a stereoscopic Tunnel in the Sky (TS) associated with the flight path data and guide the pilot in difficult conditions. We have solved both the global and local coordinate systems thus allowing us to precisely track the pilot head movements in the cockpit while the airplane moves. The system is pocket size and can be used as a backup system on any airplane.

THE RISKS

The project was a prototype but the challenge was to keep cost as low as possible while maximizing safety. We succeeded in the initiative.

RESULTS AND BENEFITS

The results of the experiments prove that our system is more efficient than more standard 2DAR and 3DAR interfaces supporting pilot navigation and landing procedures. For our work we have won the Best Paper Award at EuroVR in 2014. Aviareal has filed international patents around this system and is further developing the system.