Image courtesy USN / NASA
From Maritime Executive
Researchers with the U.S. Navy are working with NASA to develop a
heads-up display that could be used in both the Navy's atmosphere
diving suit and the space agency's new NASA Extra Vehicular Activity
(EVA) spacesuit.
David Coan, extra vehicular activity lead for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Johnson Space Center dives at the Aquarius Reef Base underwater habitat.donning a Kirby Morgan-37 helmet equipped with the Divers Augmented Vision Device Generation 1.0 heads-up display during the 23rd NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations in June 2019.
Scientists, engineers and industry partners of
Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division are taking their
heads-up-display technology, originally designed for diving, from seabed
to space.
The Diver Augmented Vision Device (DAVD) is a
high-resolution, see-through head-up display (HUD) installed in the face
shield of a Kirby Morgan-37 dive helmet.
This system provides divers
with high-resolution visual displays of everything from a top-down sonar
view of the dive site to text messages, diagrams, photographs, and even
augmented reality videos.
“This capability is game changing for
divers who usually work in zero visibility conditions - it essentially
gives them sight again through real time data and sonar,” said Allie
Williams, DAVD team lead engineer.
“Even in good visibility conditions,
the DAVD system allows for hands free information and less mental strain
of trying to remember topside instructions.
The same benefits can be
gained by astronauts as well – including better situational awareness,
safety, and allowing them to be more effective in their missions.”
The DAVD development team from Panama City recently joined a team from the Johnson Space Center during the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) exercise at the Aquarius Reef Base underwater habitat in Key Largo.
The base is the only undersea laboratory of its kind in the world, and it gives a NASA with a training environment for space exploration by providing buoyancy comparable to walking on the moon or Mars. During NEEMO-23, NASA astronauts and technical personnel used the latest generation of the system to conduct training missions and test out the idea of using a similar system in their future Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA) spacesuits during space exploration missions.
Dennis Gallagher, DAVD team project manager, emphasized the collaborative nature of the Panama City team's development process and the potential to learn more from collaboration with NASA. “You don’t achieve ‘warfighting dominance’ by taking 10 years to finally develop a rugged rotary dial phone,” said Gallagher.
“You achieve it by becoming the collaborator of choice with academia, federal labs, and industry using innovative and creative partnerships. This allows us to develop emerging technologies into new capabilities and solutions for the Warfighter at a significantly accelerated pace.”
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