Human System Integration Projects
Our team of Human Factors and Mechanical Engineers worked with the Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) on the Crewman’s Associate Advanced Technology Demonstration to design the next generation in armored vehicle crew stations.
Crew Station Design
Our human factors consultants have performed crew station design for projects including Boeing/Sikorsky LHX and RAH-66 Comanche, Future Main Battle Tank (Crewman’s Associate), Future Combat Systems, and NASA A5 UAV Ground Control Station. Contributions to these projects include designing human computer interfaces (HCI) for manned and unmanned aircraft, helicopter and tank cockpits, and integrating the flight and mission crew for special mission aircraft.
Communications and Network Management
Our human factors projects include mobile user experience (MUX) design and handheld electronic usability testing, as well as user experience design for protected satellite communications (SATCOM), satellite control workstations, server network controls, and network management software.
Case Study: TMOS
Our field research, structured interviews and focus groups yielded wire frames, work flows, use cases, workload analysis, user guides, CONOPS and engineering design documents that defined user needs and system requirements during the earliest stages of system engineering. We created, prototyped and documented a user interface and user experience that integrate with existing operational paradigms for Mission Planners, Network Managers, Operators and Warfighters.
Simulation Based Design and Evaluation
Monterey Technologies, Inc. contributed to the functional requirements of the Army’s Light Helicopter (LHX) simulator and then conducted several years of research to resolve crew size and crew station design issues.
Case Study: Rotorcraft Pilot’s Associate
Members of MTI’s staff have served as Principal Investigators for the U.S. Army’s Crew Station Research and Development Facility’s simulation task on the Rotorcraft Pilot’s Associate (RPA) program, an Advanced Technology Demonstration (ATD) program to apply cognitive decision aiding techniques to the next generation of Army rotorcraft.
Our staff worked seamlessly with simulation engineers and operational specialists from other small businesses onsite at our government client’s facilities to provide technical leadership, pilot vehicle interface design, and the planning and conduct of a series of full mission simulation experiments to develop a robust evaluation methodology for intelligent cockpit systems. Our systems engineering approach to achieving a qualitative and quantitative understanding of the value offered by the next generation of in-vehicle electronics, avionics, decision aids, and weapons earned us the Aeroflightdynamics Directorate’s Contractor of the Year Award, and helped our client to better understand the expected payoff from avionics upgrades.
Military Crew Station Design
Case Study: Crewman’s Associate
Our Industrial Engineers worked with the Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) on the Crewman’s Associate Advanced Technology Demonstration to design the next generation in armored vehicle crew stations. The challenge was to provide a comfortable, effective work space for a crew of two in a low profile main battle tank, without sacrificing crew safety, efficiency, or comfort.
We considered mission requirements, human performance capabilities, and applicable design standards to design crew stations tailored to user needs. The physical design in concert with the graphical user interface design resulted in a soldier-machine system that reduced the number of crew members over the prior vehicle by half, while increasing performance and reducing crew workload. Our design and its benefits was validated by results from a full mission simulation with active duty soldiers.
Future Combat Systems
Case Study: Manned Ground Vehicle
MTI’s Human Factors Engineers worked closely with systems, electrical, software and mechanical engineers at BAE Systems Land and Armaments Division to design crew stations for the Manned Ground Vehicle (MGV) component of the US Army’s Future Combat Systems (FCS) program. During the System Design and Development (SDD) phase of the largest material acquisition program ever undertaken by the DoD, we helped to identify requirements and design solutions for soldier-centered hardware and software.
Issues facing this development effort are similar to those which MTI’s consultants have addressed in prior work, and include limited crew compartment space, workload and performance impacts of reducing crew size, vehicle operation using multi-spectral sensor-based indirect vision systems, and the challenge of providing graphical user interfaces for network-based mission tools with limited display space. For this client we designed and conducted user-in-the-loop static, motion based simulation, and in-vehicle field tests to gather data supporting a vehicle crew station design that is best suited to meet the demands of tomorrow’s battlefield.
Our specialists have provided the following activities in support of FCS:
- Summarizing relevant work from other relevant DoD programs (head mounted displays, alternative control concepts, motion sickness, user input devices)
- Assessing the human performance impact of weight reduction-driven crew station design decisions
- Conducting human-in-the-loop simulator and in-vehicle research to evaluate human performance and other MANPRINT issues using different design alternatives
- Identifying ways to ensure that user-centered design guidelines (e.g. MIL STD 1472) are incorporated into program activities
- Graphical User Interface (GUI) design for indirect vision driving, gunnery and hit avoidance subsystems
Our work to develop a camera-based indirect vision system for the armored vehicle crew earned us the BAE Chairman’s Award, and helped the development team better understand the key system parameters affecting human system performance.
