CAREER: Using virtual reality to advance research and learning and promote positive skill transfer in complex environments with applications in enhanced flight training

Virtual reality (VR) can simulate immersive scenarios that are unsafe or even impossible in the physical world. Immersion is especially important for pilots, who rely on simulation to train for routine operations, but also for emergencies. While dedicated, high-fidelity, and approved flight simulators are already used as part of flight training, their cost and space requirements prohibit their wider use.

VR headsets connected to a computer simulator setup can enhance training both at home and within a flight training program. Despite the popularity of air travel and the need for pilots in the aviation industry, becoming a pilot is a dream that most abandon after childhood, either in pursuit of other passions or because of its prohibitive initial investment in cost and time, resulting in a nationwide pilot shortage.

This project will study skill transfer from VR-based simulation to the real world by evaluating the physical, functional, and cognitive characteristics of simulation which impact a trainee’s ability to learn efficiently and effectively, as applied to the flight training environment. This project will make flight more accessible as a career and field of study through the use of virtual reality flight simulators.

Additionally, it will broaden participation in aviation-careers and interests through outreach activities at local airports and by providing future pilots with online modules to help them initiate their training. Flight simulation performance-based and emergency response competitions will allow those already in training to test their skills and educate them on using flight simulation for their own practice.

This award will enhance flight training, resulting in reduced flight training accidents and decreased time to certification, thus improving our ability to respond to the pilot shortage.

This project will study skill transfer from virtual reality to the physical world by evaluating the physical, functional, and cognitive fidelity characteristics of simulation that impact a trainee pilot’s ability to learn efficiently and effectively. Two experiments will measure skill transfer. The first will train novice pilots completely in virtual reality and evaluate their abilities in the aircraft.

The second will follow a group of pilots who are pursuing an instrument certificate throughout their training and complement their training with simulation scenarios on both traditional simulators and a virtual reality flight simulator. Complementing flight training with simulation will investigate the impact of virtual reality interventions on skill acquisition and mental workload management.

The data collected through both experiments will be used to evaluate and validate the use of virtual reality in both research and training as an alternative to physical simulators. This work will collect flight data through on-board flight data recorders and simulation software, physiological data through eye tracking and heart rate monitoring, and psychometric data through mobile surveys.

Scoring algorithms will detect and evaluate human performance on a series of maneuvers. This project will advance our understanding of how humans learn in complex virtual reality environments such as flight training, validating virtual reality systems as a training device option, and therefore reducing the cost and time of highly advanced training in fields, which require the use of multiple skills simultaneously.

The research will identify which types of skills transfer, use data-driven metrics to measure skill acquisition and transfer, validate the use of eye tracking and hear rate metrics in virtual reality, and develop a framework to assess modern simulators based on how they address learning outcomes, informing policy and regulation. The integration of education and research in this proposal is focused on a three-level approach: (i) creating interest through outreach activities; (ii) empowering actions through online training modules and the use of VR-based flight simulation; (iii) advancing training through self-practice and semi-annual competitive flight simulation events.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.