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At least 19 records

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NASA NTRS2010

Tactile Cueing as a Gravitational Substitute for Spatial Navigation During Parabolic Flight

INTRODUCTION: Spatial navigation requires an accurate awareness of orientation in your environment. The purpose of this experiment was to examine how spatial awareness was impaired with changing gravitational cues during parabolic flight, and the extent to which vibrotactile feedback of orientation could be used to help improve performance. METHODS: Six subjects were restrained in a chair tilted relative to the plane floor, and placed at random positions during the start of the microgravity phase. Subjects reported their orientation using verbal reports, and used a hand-held controller to point to a desired target location presented using a virtual reality video mask. This task was repeated with and without constant tactile cueing of "down" direction using a belt of 8 tactors placed around the mid-torso. Control measures were obtained during ground testing using both upright and tilted conditions. RESULTS: Perceptual estimates of orientation and pointing accuracy were impaired during microgravity or during rotation about an upright axis in 1g. The amount of error was proportional to the amount of chair displacement. Perceptual errors were reduced during movement about a tilted axis on earth. CONCLUSIONS: Reduced perceptual errors during tilts in 1g indicate the importance of otolith and somatosensory cues for maintaining spatial awareness. Tactile cueing may improve navigation in operational environments or clinical populations, providing a non-visual non-auditory feedback of orientation or desired direction heading.

Montgomery, K. L.↗

NASA NTRS2010

Assessment of Spatial Navigation and Docking Performance During Simulated Rover Tasks

INTRODUCTION: Following long-duration exploration transits, pressurized rovers will enhance surface mobility to explore multiple sites across Mars and other planetary bodies. Multiple rovers with docking capabilities are envisioned to expand the range of exploration. However, adaptive changes in sensorimotor and cognitive function may impair the crew s ability to safely navigate and perform docking tasks shortly after transition to the new gravitoinertial environment. The primary goal of this investigation is to quantify post-flight decrements in spatial navigation and docking performance during a rover simulation. METHODS: Eight crewmembers returning from the International Space Station will be tested on a motion simulator during four pre-flight and three post-flight sessions over the first 8 days following landing. The rover simulation consists of a serial presentation of discrete tasks to be completed within a scheduled 10 min block. The tasks are based on navigating around a Martian outpost spread over a 970 sq m terrain. Each task is subdivided into three components to be performed as quickly and accurately as possible: (1) Perspective taking: Subjects use a joystick to indicate direction of target after presentation of a map detailing current orientation and location of the rover with the task to be performed. (2) Navigation: Subjects drive the rover to the desired location while avoiding obstacles. (3) Docking: Fine positioning of the rover is required to dock with another object or align a camera view. Overall operator proficiency will be based on how many tasks the crewmember can complete during the 10 min time block. EXPECTED RESULTS: Functionally relevant testing early post-flight will develop evidence regarding the limitations to early surface operations and what countermeasures are needed. This approach can be easily adapted to a wide variety of simulated vehicle designs to provide sensorimotor assessments for other operational and civilian populations.

Wood, S. J.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Spatial information technologies for remote sensing today and tomorrow; Proceedings of the Ninth Pecora Symposium, Sioux Falls, SD, October 2-4, 1984

Topics discussed at the symposium include hardware, geographic information system (GIS) implementation, processing remotely sensed data, spatial data structures, and NASA programs in remote sensing information systems. Attention is also given GIS applications, advanced techniques, artificial intelligence, graphics, spatial navigation, and classification. Papers are included on the design of computer software for geographic image processing, concepts for a global resource information system, algorithm development for spatial operators, and an application of expert systems technology to remotely sensed image analysis.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS2003

Hippocampal place cell instability after lesions of the head direction cell network

The occurrence of cells that encode spatial location (place cells) or head direction (HD cells) in the rat limbic system suggests that these cell types are important for spatial navigation. We sought to determine whether place fields of hippocampal CA1 place cells would be altered in animals receiving lesions of brain areas containing HD cells. Rats received bilateral lesions of anterodorsal thalamic nuclei (ADN), postsubiculum (PoS), or sham lesions, before place cell recording. Although place cells from lesioned animals did not differ from controls on many place-field characteristics, such as place-field size and infield firing rate, the signal was significantly degraded with respect to measures of outfield firing rate, spatial coherence, and information content. Surprisingly, place cells from lesioned animals were more likely modulated by the directional heading of the animal. Rotation of the landmark cue showed that place fields from PoS-lesioned animals were not controlled by the cue and shifted unpredictably between sessions. Although fields from ADN-lesioned animals tended to have less landmark control than fields from control animals, this impairment was mild compared with cells recorded from PoS-lesioned animals. Removal of the prominent visual cue also led to instability of place-field representations in PoS-lesioned, but not ADN-lesioned, animals. Together, these findings suggest that an intact HD system is not necessary for the maintenance of place fields, but lesions of brain areas that convey the HD signal can degrade this signal, and lesions of the PoS might lead to perceptual or mnemonic deficits, leading to place-field instability between sessions.

NASA Program Biomedical Research and Countermeasur↗

NASA NTRS1988

TASKILLAN - A simulation to predict the validity of multiple resource models of aviation workload

A study to establish the validity of five predictive models of workload in the context of a controlled helicopter mission, TASKILLAN, is presented. Ten subjects performed simulations involving combinations of a low level flight task with three cognitive side tasks pertaining to navigation, spatial awareness, and computation. It is found that the best predictors of subjective workload are relativly simple models that integrate the total demands of task over time.

Wickens, Christopher D.↗

NASA NTRS1999

Head and Trunk Movement Control During Locomotion After Long-Duration Spaceflight

Exposure to the microgravity environment encountered during spaceflight induces adaptive alteration in sensorimotor function that leads to postflight disturbances in locomotor control. Head and trunk movement control plays a central role in maintaining gaze stability and in providing a stable reference system to permit spatial navigation in a complex and constantly varying environment. The goal of the present study was to investigate the effects of long-duration spaceflight (3-6 months) on head and trunk movement control during postflight terrestrial locomotion. Before and after spaceflight, subjects walked on a motorized treadmill while performing a challenging gaze stabilization task requiring number recognition. Head and trunk kinematic data were collected with a video-based motion analysis system. Analysis of roll, pitch and yaw head and trunk movements during treadmill walking revealed postflight alterations in head and trunk movement control in all three planes of motion. Subjects also experienced oscillopsia during postflight walking which led to impairment in performance of the number recognition task. These data indicate that exposure to long-duration space flight causes alteration in head and trunk movement control during postflight locomotion. These changes have implications for the control of gaze and maintenance of dynamic stability during walking after long-duration spaceflight.

Bloomberg, Jacob J.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Spatial cognition and navigation

An experiment that provides data for the development of a cognitive model of pilot flight navigation is described. The experiment characterizes navigational awareness as the mental alignment of two frames of reference: (1) the ego centered reference frame that is established by the forward view out of the cockpit and (2) the world centered reference frame that is established by the aircraft's location on a map. The data support a model involving at least two components: (1) the perceptual encoding of the navigational landmarks and (2) the mental rotation of the map's world reference frame into alignment with the ego centered reference frame. The quantitative relationships of these two factors are provided as possible inputs for a computational model of spatial cognition during flight navigation.

Aretz, Anthony J.↗

NASA NTRS1989

A tesselated probabilistic representation for spatial robot perception and navigation

The ability to recover robust spatial descriptions from sensory information and to efficiently utilize these descriptions in appropriate planning and problem-solving activities are crucial requirements for the development of more powerful robotic systems. Traditional approaches to sensor interpretation, with their emphasis on geometric models, are of limited use for autonomous mobile robots operating in and exploring unknown and unstructured environments. Here, researchers present a new approach to robot perception that addresses such scenarios using a probabilistic tesselated representation of spatial information called the Occupancy Grid. The Occupancy Grid is a multi-dimensional random field that maintains stochastic estimates of the occupancy state of each cell in the grid. The cell estimates are obtained by interpreting incoming range readings using probabilistic models that capture the uncertainty in the spatial information provided by the sensor. A Bayesian estimation procedure allows the incremental updating of the map using readings taken from several sensors over multiple points of view. An overview of the Occupancy Grid framework is given, and its application to a number of problems in mobile robot mapping and navigation are illustrated. It is argued that a number of robotic problem-solving activities can be performed directly on the Occupancy Grid representation. Some parallels are drawn between operations on Occupancy Grids and related image processing operations.

Elfes, Alberto↗

NASA NTRS1989

Sensor fusion: Spatial reasoning and scene interpretation; Proceedings of the Meeting, Cambridge, MA, Nov. 7-9, 1988

The present conference discusses topics in the fusion of active and passive sensors, object estimation and verification, three-dimensional representation and knowledge integration, three-dimensional perception from multisensor data, the representation of uncertainty in multisensor fusion, and sensor calibration and registration. Also discussed are the areas of multisensor target detection and classification, multisensor processing architectures, knowledge structures and spatial reasoning, sensory interfaces to telerobotic systems, and navigation with spatial data bases.

Schenker, Paul S.↗

NASA NTRS1997

The Taxiway Navigation and Situation Awareness (T-NASA) System

The goal of NASA's Terminal Area Productivity (TAP) Low-Visibility Landing and Surface Operations (LVLASO) subelement is to improve the efficiency of airport surface operations for commercial aircraft operating in weather conditions to Category IIIB while maintaining a high degree of safety. Currently, surface operations are one of the least technologically sophisticated components of the air transport system, being conducted in the 1990's with the same basic technology as in the 1930's. Pilots are given little or no explicit information about their current position, and routing information is limited to ATC communications and airport charts. In TAP/LVLASO, advanced technologies such as satellite navigation systems, digital data communications, advanced information presentation technology, and ground surveillance systems will be integrated into flight deck displays to enable expeditious and safe traffic movement on the airport surface. The cockpit display suite is called the T-NASA (Taxiway Navigation and Situation Awareness) System. This system has three integrated components: 1) Moving Map track-up airport surface display with own-ship, traffic and graphical route guidance 2) Scene-Linked Symbology - route/taxi information virtually projected via a Head-up Display (HUD) onto the forward scene; and, 3) 3-D Audio Ground Collision Avoidance and Navigation system - spatially-localized auditory traffic and navigation alerts. In the current paper, the design philosophy of the T-NASA system will be presented, and the T-NASA system display components described.

Foyle, David C.↗

NASA NTRS2002

Perceived orientation in physical and virtual environments: changes in perceived orientation as a function of idiothetic information available

Two experiments examined perceived spatial orientation in a small environment as a function of experiencing that environment under three conditions: real-world, desktop-display (DD), and head-mounted display (HMD). Across the three conditions, participants acquired two targets located on a perimeter surrounding them, and attempted to remember the relative locations of the targets. Subsequently, participants were tested on how accurately and consistently they could point in the remembered direction of a previously seen target. Results showed that participants were significantly more consistent in the real-world and HMD conditions than in the DD condition. Further, it is shown that the advantages observed in the HMD and real-world conditions were not simply due to nonspatial response strategies. These results suggest that the additional idiothetic information afforded in the real-world and HMD conditions is useful for orientation purposes in our presented task domain. Our results are relevant to interface design issues concerning tasks that require spatial search, navigation, and visualization.

NASA Center ARC↗

NASA NTRS2009

Space Flight and Manual Control: Implications for Sensorimotor Function on Future Missions

Control of vehicles, and other complex mechanical motion systems, is a high-level integrative function of the central nervous system (CNS) that requires good visual acuity, eye-hand coordination, spatial (and, in some cases, geographic) orientation perception, and cognitive function. Existing evidence from space flight research (Paloski et.al., 2008, Clement and Reschke 2008, Reschke et al., 2007) demonstrates that the function of each of these systems is altered by removing (and subsequently by reintroducing) a gravitational field that can be sensed by vestibular, proprioceptive, and haptic receptors and used by the CNS for spatial orientation, navigation, and coordination of movements. Furthermore, much of the operational performance data collected as a function of space flight has not been available for independent analysis, and those data that have been reviewed are equivocal owing to uncontrolled environmental and/or engineering factors. Thus, our current understanding, when it comes to manual control, is limited primarily to a review of those situations where manual control has been a factor. One of the simplest approaches to the manual control problem is to review shuttle landing data. See the Figure below for those landing for which we have Shuttle velocities over the runway threshold.

Reschke, Millard F.↗

NASA NTRS2012

Image Mapping and Visual Attention on the Sensory Ego-Sphere

The Sensory Ego-Sphere (SES) is a short-term memory for a robot in the form of an egocentric, tessellated, spherical, sensory-motor map of the robot s locale. Visual attention enables fast alignment of overlapping images without warping or position optimization, since an attentional point (AP) on the composite typically corresponds to one on each of the collocated regions in the images. Such alignment speeds analysis of the multiple images of the area. Compositing and attention were performed two ways and compared: (1) APs were computed directly on the composite and not on the full-resolution images until the time of retrieval; and (2) the attentional operator was applied to all incoming imagery. It was found that although the second method was slower, it produced consistent and, thereby, more useful APs. The SES is an integral part of a control system that will enable a robot to learn new behaviors based on its previous experiences, and that will enable it to recombine its known behaviors in such a way as to solve related, but novel, task problems with apparent creativity. The approach is to combine sensory-motor data association and dimensionality reduction to learn navigation and manipulation tasks as sequences of basic behaviors that can be implemented with a small set of closed-loop controllers. Over time, the aggregate of behaviors and their transition probabilities form a stochastic network. Then given a task, the robot finds a path in the network that leads from its current state to the goal. The SES provides a short-term memory for the cognitive functions of the robot, association of sensory and motor data via spatio-temporal coincidence, direction of the attention of the robot, navigation through spatial localization with respect to known or discovered landmarks, and structured data sharing between the robot and human team members, the individuals in multi-robot teams, or with a C3 center.

Fleming, Katherine Achim↗

NASA NTRS1989

Interaction dynamics of multiple autonomous mobile robots in bounded spatial domains

A general navigation strategy for multiple autonomous robots in a bounded domain is developed analytically. Each robot is modeled as a spherical particle (i.e., an effective spatial domain about the center of mass); its interactions with other robots or with obstacles and domain boundaries are described in terms of the classical many-body problem; and a collision-avoidance strategy is derived and combined with homing, robot-robot, and robot-obstacle collision-avoidance strategies. Results from homing simulations involving (1) a single robot in a circular domain, (2) two robots in a circular domain, and (3) one robot in a domain with an obstacle are presented in graphs and briefly characterized.

Wang, P. K. C.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Cognitive perspectives on map displays for helicopter flight

Currently accessible technologies are providing entirely new display concepts for enhancing helicopter navigation. Yet the effectiveness of such displays depends on the extent to which they are configured according to principles from research on human performance. Computer generated map displays in the present study were configured according to previous research on maps, navigational problem solving, and spatial cognition in large scale environments. Interest centered on the representation of different spatial relationships that would best support helicopter navigational problem solving. One map display emphasized the global relationships between objects in the environment. The other map showed the pilot's relationship to objects as he traveled through the environment. Twenty skilled pilots used the maps to complete several navigational tasks that occurred within a realistic simulation program tailored for helicopter navigation. Findings indicate that the type of task and mode of flight (low level or Nap of the Earth (NOE)) are important determinants of map display effectiveness.

Harwood, Kelly↗

NASA NTRS2003

Neural Development Under Conditions of Spaceflight

One of the key tasks the developing brain must learn is how to navigate within the environment. This skill depends on the brain's ability to establish memories of places and things in the environment so that it can form cognitive maps. Earth's gravity defines the plane of orientation of the spatial environment in which animals navigate, and cognitive maps are based on this plane of orientation. Given that experience during early development plays a key role in the development of other aspects of brain function, experience in a gravitational environment is likely to be essential for the proper organization of brain regions mediating learning and memory of spatial information. Since the hippocampus is the brain region responsible for cognitive mapping abilities, this study evaluated the development of hippocampal structure and function in rats that spent part of their early development in microgravity. Litters of male and female Sprague-Dawley rats were launched into space aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia on either postnatal day eight (P8) or 14 (P14) and remained in space for 16 days. Upon return to Earth, the rats were tested for their ability to remember spatial information and navigate using a variety of tests (the Morris water maze, a modified radial arm maze, and an open field apparatus). These rats were then tested physiologically to determine whether they exhibited normal synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus. In a separate group of rats (flight and controls), the hippocampus was analyzed using anatomical, molecular biological, and biochemical techniques immediately postlanding. There were remarkably few differences between the flight groups and their Earth-bound controls in either the navigation and spatial memory tasks or activity-induced synaptic plasticity. Microscopic and immunocytochemical analyses of the brain also did not reveal differences between flight animals and ground-based controls. These data suggest that, within the developmental window studied, microgravity has minimal long-term impact on cognitive mapping function and cellular substrates important for this function. Any differences due to development in microgravity were transient and returned to normal soon after return to Earth.

Kosik, Kenneth S.↗

NASA NTRS2013

Cloud Absorption Radiometer Autonomous Navigation System - CANS

CAR (cloud absorption radiometer) acquires spatial reference data from host aircraft navigation systems. This poses various problems during CAR data reduction, including navigation data format, accuracy of position data, accuracy of airframe inertial data, and navigation data rate. Incorporating its own navigation system, which included GPS (Global Positioning System), roll axis inertia and rates, and three axis acceleration, CANS expedites data reduction and increases the accuracy of the CAR end data product. CANS provides a self-contained navigation system for the CAR, using inertial reference and GPS positional information. The intent of the software application was to correct the sensor with respect to aircraft roll in real time based upon inputs from a precision navigation sensor. In addition, the navigation information (including GPS position), attitude data, and sensor position details are all streamed to a remote system for recording and later analysis. CANS comprises a commercially available inertial navigation system with integral GPS capability (Attitude Heading Reference System AHRS) integrated into the CAR support structure and data system. The unit is attached to the bottom of the tripod support structure. The related GPS antenna is located on the P-3 radome immediately above the CAR. The AHRS unit provides a RS-232 data stream containing global position and inertial attitude and velocity data to the CAR, which is recorded concurrently with the CAR data. This independence from aircraft navigation input provides for position and inertial state data that accounts for very small changes in aircraft attitude and position, sensed at the CAR location as opposed to aircraft state sensors typically installed close to the aircraft center of gravity. More accurate positional data enables quicker CAR data reduction with better resolution. The CANS software operates in two modes: initialization/calibration and operational. In the initialization/calibration mode, the software aligns the precision navigation sensors and initializes the communications interfaces with the sensor and the remote computing system. It also monitors the navigation data state for quality and ensures that the system maintains the required fidelity for attitude and positional information. In the operational mode, the software runs at 12.5 Hz and gathers the required navigation/attitude data, computes the required sensor correction values, and then commands the sensor to the required roll correction. In this manner, the sensor will stay very near to vertical at all times, greatly improving the resulting collected data and imagery. CANS greatly improves quality of resulting imagery and data collected. In addition, the software component of the system outputs a concisely formatted, high-speed data stream that can be used for further science data processing. This precision, time-stamped data also can benefit other instruments on the same aircraft platform by providing extra information from the mission flight.

Kahle, Duncan↗

NASA NTRS1999

Visual Orientation in Unfamiliar Gravito-Inertial Environments

The goal of this project is to better understand the process of spatial orientation and navigation in unfamiliar gravito-inertial environments, and ultimately to use this new information to develop effective countermeasures against the orientation and navigation problems experienced by astronauts. How do we know our location, orientation, and motion of our body with respect to the external environment ? On earth, gravity provides a convenient "down" cue. Large body rotations normally occur only in a horizontal plane. In space, the gravitational down cue is absent. When astronauts roll or pitch upside down, they must recognize where things are around them by a process of mental rotation which involves three dimensions, rather than just one. While working in unfamiliar situations they occasionally misinterpret visual cues and experience striking "visual reorientation illusions" (VRIs), in which the walls, ceiling, and floors of the spacecraft exchange subjective identities. VRIs cause disorientation, reaching errors, trigger attacks of space motion sickness, and potentially complicate emergency escape. MIR crewmembers report that 3D relationships between modules - particularly those with different visual verticals - are difficult to visualize, and so navigating through the node that connects them is not instinctive. Crew members learn routes, but their apparent lack of survey knowledge is a concern should fire, power loss, or depressurization limit visibility. Anecdotally, experience in mockups, parabolic flight, neutral buoyancy and virtual reality (VR) simulators helps. However, no techniques have been developed to quantify individual differences in orientation and navigation abilities, or the effectiveness of preflight visual. orientation training. Our understanding of the underlying physiology - for example how our sense of place and orientation is neurally coded in three dimensions in the limbic system of the brain - is incomplete. During the 16 months that this human and animal research project has been underway, we have obtained several results that are not only of basic research interest, but which have practical implications for the architecture and layout of spacecraft interiors and for the development of astronaut spatial orientation training countermeasures.

Oman, Charles M.↗