User:Jeffhogue

Virtual Reality Parachute Simulation
Virtual Reality (VR) Parachute Simulation is a technology which allows a user to interact with a computer simulation parachuting environment. As a minimum, this technology consists of a display of a view of a computer simulated world through which the user's eye point is moved according to simulated parachute flight dynamics computations, usually as these equations respond to sensed user motions of simulated parachute controls. Visual displays may consist of a computer monitor(s), images projected on flat or curved surfaces, or in head-mounted displays (HMDs). Simulations using HMDs typically include a head motion tracker, usually providing only head orientation angles, to provide the user's eye location and orientation which is then computationally combined with the simulated parachute motions to provide a basis for the scene display. The parachute being simulated will typically be of round or ram-air configuration, although other configurations have been used in real parachuting. Each individual simulation needs to have appropriate matching vehicle motion dynamics equations and graphics model. Parachutes are typically termed steerable or non-steerable depending on whether or not steering control lines are provided, but the motion of any parachute can be somewhat modified by varying the loading applied to the suspension risers. Other parachute controls include ripcords to control parachute deployment or release and jumper's body position as it affects air flow.

Application categories
Characteristics of VR parachute flight simulation can be categorized by the applications for which they are intended to be used. Typical categories include smoke jumpers, airborne forces or paratroopers, aircrew emergency, skydivers, museums, and entertainment uses.

Smoke Jumper Training Simulator
Just as the establishment of smoke jumping, or the use of parachutes to insert forest fire fighters into difficult terrain, in the United States (US) facilitated the origin of US military paratrooping just prior to World War II, a smoke jumping training dilemma lead to the creation of a parachute simulator which eventually was adopted for military parachute training in all branches of the US and many foreign military around the world. As of March 2009, over 300 total systems had been installed. In 1986, David Pierce of the United States Department of Agriculture USDA US Forest Service (FS), Missoula Technology and Development Center (MDTC) contacted Jeffrey Hogue of Systems Technology, Inc. (STI) for ideas and assistance in solving his smoke jumper training problem. Too many trainees were getting hurt in training jumps, usually do to over control usage, but reducing the number of training jumps was seen as likely to result in more on-the-job jump injuries and lower parachute performance. Building on STI's experience in building very low cost PC-based driving simulators, STI developed a low cost, monitor display, spring-loaded toggle control force loader, Microsoft QuickBasic/C programmed, Intel 386/387 CPU personal computer based simulator which provided training in safe parachute canopy control, navigation, and collision avoidance as a solution to the training problem for the FS-12 round parachutes (similar to the military MC-1B round parachute).

Shortly thereafter ram-air parachute dynamics and graphics models were developed for United States Department of the Interior (DOI) Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Quantum parachute smoke jumper training. The FS preferred round parachutes because of their ability to provide near vertical descents into rough terrain and forests; The BLM preferred ram-air parachutes because their higher forward speeds provided higher wind level tolerances. Since the missions are similar in 1989 in an effort to minimize the inventory variety and training, the FS conducted an evaluation test of the BLM parachute. The FS experienced a fatality during this testing which was abandoned and an effort, managed by David Pierce and Patrick Wilson of MTDC, started with William Gargano of Quantum Parachutes to develop a more suitable round parachute. The resulting FS-14 provided higher load capacity, higher forward speeds, the ability to backup in still air, and much more rapid turn rates. This much more responsive

In 1991, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization provided a grant which resulted in the delivery of a smoke jumper simulator to Ulan Bator, Mongolia which remains in use in its original form in 2009; the US smoke jumper simulators have been updated.

Aircrew Emergency Training Simulator
The next community to adopt parachute training simulators was those training aircrew personnel for emergencies. Aircrew parachuting, developed during WWI and reserved for dealing with dire emergencies, are usually considered much to valuable for hazardous recurrent actual parachute training experiences. In 1992, the Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNAF) purchased two original configuration simulators. In 1995, the US Navy purchased a simulator for aircrew training at Naval Air Station Cecil Field, Florida. This was the first parachute simulator installed with a hanging harness. By 1996, low cost HMDs with head motion trackers and high speed graphics cards became available for the affordable PC gamer market. The STI ParaSim parachute simulator was redesigned with Microsoft Visual C++ programming to use the Virtual I/O HMD and tracker. This display configuration was first publicly shown at the 1996 Symposium annual meeting of the SAFE Life Support meeting in Reno, Nevada. At this meeting, LtCol Robert Lee from the Air Force Safety Center in Albuquerque, NM reviewed this system with Mr. Hogue and provided the key insights into how a VR display combined with a standard emergency equipment worn by an aircrew suspended in an appropriate hanging harness would enable a far more complete training opportunity than the previous simple canopy control steering application. The resulting system was documented in a paper presented at the 1996 SAFE Association Symposium meeting and led to the subsequent widespread adoption of this training concept. More modern HMD and tracker equipment are now supplied and supported.

In 1997 and 1998, two US Air Force (USAF) Life Support units at Mountain Home and Beale Air Force Bases bought STI PARASIM R VR HMD-based parachute simulators. In a process documented in the December 1999 issue of USAF Air Combat Command (ACC) magazine "Combat Edge". After investigating a number of ACC accidents which resulted in ejections and aircrew injuries attributed to training problems, Retired General Richard Hawley (former ACC commander)reviewed the Mountain Home AFB simulator in early 1998, ordered an simulator evaluation test which resulted in the purchase of 23 simulators, and implemented VR parachute training throughout ACC. This was followed by large purchases by all components of the USAF, the US Navy (USN), and the UK Royal Air Force (RAF) for emergency parachute training.

While early aircrew emergency parachute training focused primarily on canopy flight control, collision avoidance, and proper landing training, traditional USAF and USN classes emphasized the need to follow a specific set of emergency equipment procedures dealing with helmet visor, oxygen mask, communication connections, life preserver and raft, and attached emergency equipment kit. Moreover, while aircraft ejections and the resulting automatic parachute deployments are predominately the cause aircrew parachute experiences, many US military aircraft carry parachutes which would be donned by aircrew in an emergency and deployed manually after bailout. The initial VR parachute simulators used HMDs which had compatibility problems with this emergency equipment; the solution was to modify the HMDs, trackers, aircrew emergency equipment, and provide sensors for items such as ripcords as can be seen in the aircrew bailout training simulator photo above.

Operational Airborne Simulator
Although part task simulator-like training tools such as swing landing trainers, mock aircraft doors, suspended harnesses, and free jump towers have been long employed in US Military parachuting schools such as United States Army Airborne School at {{Fort Benning]], the first VR parachute training simulators were acquired through a four system purchase by the [{US Marine Corps]] (USMC) in 1996 and installed separately in four USMC Force Reconnaissance (Force Recon) Companies at 1st Reconnaissance Battalion MCB Camp Pendleton, CA. 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion MCB Camp Lejeune, NC, MCB Quantico, and 5th Force Reconnaissance Company [[Marine Corps Base Camp Smedley D. Butler|MCB Camp Butler, Okinawa] Japan].