Developing an Augmented Reality Application for Space Mission Training
An ongoing collaboration with the Aerospace Engineering department
Project Overview
The Research in User eXperience (RUX) Lab under Dr. Barbara Chaparro and the Space Trajectories and Applications Research (STAR) Lab under Dr. David Garcia-Canales are working to develop an easy-to-use AR system for space mission planning. RUX has focused on incorporating a user-centered approach to develop the AR prototype that enhances collaboration, ease-of-use, and visualization techniques.
Problem
The field of astrodynamics currently relies on highly specialized tools for spacecraft trajectory design, resulting in intricate trajectories sometimes difficult to visualize on 2D screens.
This resulted in wanting to design a user friendly AR interface that both novices and experts can use for various astrodynamics propagations.
Heuristic Evaluation, Tabular Task Analysis, Task Decomposition, and Systematic Human Error Reduction and Prediction Approach (SHERPA)
Figure 1. Task 1 Tabular Task Analysis for propagating CR3BP
Solution
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Contextual Inquiry conducted with Subject Matter Experts
Associated Publications
Aerospace Engineering Team
1 Master’s student
2 undergraduate students
Advisor: Dr. David Garcia-Canales
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The project is still ongoing, however, different methods have been conducted such as a contextual inquiry, Hierarchical Task Analysis, Keystroke Level Model, and Systematic Human Error Reduction and Prediction Approach to evaluate the first prototype. These results have shown that the preliminary prototype has shown to take less time to complete than one of the traditional tools, Ansys STK. The team is currently working on usability testing this preliminary prototype with Aerospace Engineering students from ERAU to identify issues and provide recommendations to the developers.
Human Factors Team
2 Ph.D students
2 Master’s students
4 undergraduate students
Advisor: Dr. Barbara Chaparro
Usability Testing with Aerospace Engineering students at ERAU that have taken AE 313: Orbital Mechanics
My Role
Research Timeline
Conducting UX research methodologies to improve design
Providing user interface design recommendations based on HF principles and concepts
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Heuristic Evaluation and iterative designing of the interfaces will be completed once recommendations have been taken into account by developers
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Process will repeat until the tool is functional and usable for both novice and expert users
Figure 2. Task 1 SHERPA for propagating CR3BP
Figma Prototyping
Using Figma, I translated low-fidelity paper wireframes into a high-fidelity prototype. Then, I improved them by adding interface features found within the Microsoft Toolkit. At this stage, the interface was deployed to the HoloLens 2 for usability testing. Based on two heuristic evaluations, I made a few alternations for propagation demos for NASA - Goddard. In the future, there will be further user testing and more iterations of this prototype.
Aros, M., Cooks, K., Materne, L., Huggins, J., Anderson, J., Geliga-Torres, J., Chaparro, B., & Canales, D. (2024, October). Applying User-Centered Design to Space Mission Planning [Poster Abstract]. 2024 ASPIRE Annual Meeting, Phoenix, AZ, United States.
Anderson, J. D., Geliga, J. A., Tang, K. Y., Kuykendall, K. P., Canales, D., & Chaparro, B. S. (2024). Immersive Framework for Designing Trajectories Using Augmented Reality. In AIAA SCITECH 2024 Forum (p. 1057).
Geliga-Torres, J., Aros, M., Anderson, J., Cooks, K., Martinez-Samaniego, E., Canales, D., Chaparro, B., & Guzzetti, D. (2024, November). A Human-Centric Comparative Analysis of Trajectory Design Methods for Multi-body Dynamics [Poster Abstract]. 2024 Rocky Mountain American Astronautical Society, United States.