Multisensory Cues for Addressing Spatial Orientation

Spatial orientation (SO) awareness and the associated Spatial Disorientation (SD) are very complex and multi-faceted problems that are often implicated in military and civilian aviation mishaps. This work describes a series of experiments where participants reported their perceived orientation during test flight maneuvers, while under various controlled sensory reference conditions. Participant sensory information was restricted to; visual instrument conditions, vibrotactile orientation cues that were presented on an array of body referenced tactile actuators and no visual or tactile cues. During maneuvers where visual or tactile cueing information was provided, all participants maintained spatial orientation. As expected, in the absence of cues, participants relied on their somatosensory system which could lead to significant errors in orientation estimation. Continuous tactile orientation information potentially provides the capability of maintaining SO under conditions of pilot distraction during degraded visual environments.