Team Purdue collaborates with NASA to study sense of touch in zero gravity
We study a $300,000,000 problem: Spatial Disorientation
Spatial disorientation mishaps cost the Department of Defense $300 million annually in lost aircraft, dozens of lives and can give astronauts debilitating motion sickness. It is a false perception of one's attitude or orientation. Team Purdue's research hopes to investigate the use of "buzzing tactors" (like what you feel in a massage chair) to convey orientation to disorientated individuals.
Excitement of science in youth is our aim
Our team will share our research and flight experiences with the general public and students of varying age levels. We will be visiting and presenting at local schools, museums, and participating in West Lafayette, IN events. Involvement in these various programs will inspire people of all ages, to become involved with the field of science and the space program. Along with educating the community, we hope to further our knowledge by positive interaction with a diverse group of people.
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Our tools are a vest with tactors and an airplane that creates zero gravity
We wear a vest with ten tactors (they are like the vibrators in a massage chair) equally distributed over the torso. The vest is a tight fitting wetsuit jacket. In our flight we alternate between weightlessness (zero g) and twice the earth's normal gravity (two g). Learn how NASA makes zero gravity on earth. Two students wear vests, one will float and the other is strapped to the floor. Both will feel a random tactor buzz and they will push a keypad. At the end of the flight we will "grade" the floating and strapped down students' answers and compare them to their answers on earth.
This research is three years in the making
This year culminates three years of experiments investigating haptic (touch) perception in altered-gravity environments. Data collected during two previous flights under the NASA Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program showed that (1) identifying touch location deteriorated in zero-gravity environment; and (2) this deterioration was not due to a change in hardware performance, or a change in perceived intensity of haptic signals in zero-g.
Our focus is on cognitive load (mental distractions)
The current project investigates the role of mental distractions (cognitive load) in affecting haptic performance in a zero-gravity environment. Cognitive load is tested by strapping down one of the students during the weightless part of the flight to reduce that students' distractions. The other will float. Performance will be assessed by comparing accuracy in identifying a haptic stimulus on the torso by the flying and the immobilized member, and by comparing information transmission through the multi-tactor vests worn by these two flight members.
The benefactors of haptics research include: Astronauts, Soldiers, Disabled and the Elderly
Results will be of interest throughout the aerospace community. Properly designed tactile displays could give astronauts additional orientation awareness during EVAs (Extra-Vehicular Activities) and discrete communication to covert ops soldiers would be made easy. This haptic technology could be used for navigational information to disabled, elderly or the blind when combined with a Global Positioning System (GPS) and a wearable computer.
Team Purdue,
Anu Bhargava
Jonathan Andrew Wolter
Kim Mrozek
Mike Scott
Roy Chung
With thanks to our generous sponsors below for their support.
Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University
Aerospace Engineering, Purdue University
Industrial Engineering, Purdue University
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