MRI: Acquisition of Dynamic Immersive Virtual Environment for Research in Human-Machine Interaction

这一重大研究仪器奖支持获得具有同步全身运动跟踪系统的沉浸式虚拟现实(VR)环境，以促进人机交互方面的跨学科研究，并加强教学和学生研究培训。这个房间大小的虚拟现实系统提供了多个计算机生成的显示器，允许用户完全沉浸在模拟环境中并与其实时协作交互，同时运动跟踪系统捕获用户的物理动作。VR系统将使多个学科的多项研究能够更好地了解人机交互以及人类运动技能和学习。这将导致技术的发展，增强人类的机动性和功能，并促进机器人和人类之间的协作操作。预计收购该系统将影响的研究活动包括康复、运动训练、先进制造和智能驾驶舱等人机界面设计方面的研究活动。这些活动具有很大的技术转让潜力，可以直接改善社区个人的生活质量。此外，该工具将为几个外展活动提供有吸引力的资源，以激励学生在STEM学科中追求大学职业生涯。该仪器是一个交钥匙、集成良好的洞穴虚拟现实环境，具有四壁投影系统、具有手指跟踪功能的八摄像头实时运动捕获系统，以及用于定制软件开发和额外硬件集成的控制软件套件。该仪器将使几个关键领域的基础研究活动成为可能。研究人员将研究动态环境中人与机器人之间的交互模型，以开发有效的人-机器人协作控制策略。其他项目将研究人类感知、在各种刺激下人类运动的生物力学，以及开发辅助技术和训练方案，以提高运动技能和学习。该仪器还将使研究人员能够为复杂环境中的人类交互开发模型和评估指标，包括多感觉反馈、扰动、高级显示模式和多用户。VR系统提供了一种经济高效的设计解决方案，可以进行调整、利用和评估，以满足不同项目的需求，这些项目需要丰富的视觉显示来捕捉现实世界中的动态变化。

This Major Research Instrumentation Award supports the acquisition of an immersive virtual reality (VR) environment with synchronized full-body motion tracking system to facilitate interdisciplinary research in human-machine interactions and enhanced teaching and student research training. This room-size virtual reality system provides multiple computer-generated displays that allow users to fully immerse and collaboratively interact with the simulated environment in real-time while the motion tracking system captures the user's physical movements. The VR system will enable several research studies across multiple disciplines to gain a better understanding of human-machine interactions and human motor skills and learning. This will lead to the development of technologies that enhance human mobility and function and foster collaborative operations between robots and humans. The research activities envisioned to be impacted by the acquisition of this system include those in rehabilitation, sports training, advanced manufacturing, and design of human-machine interfaces such as intelligent cockpits. The activities have a strong potential for technology transfer that can directly improve the quality of life for individuals in the community. Additionally, the instrumentation will provide an attractive resource for several outreach activities to motivate students to pursue a college career in STEM disciplines. The instrument is a turnkey, well-integrated CAVE virtual reality environment with a four-wall projection system, eight-camera real-time motion capture system with finger tracking capability, and a control software suite for customized software development and additional hardware integration. The instrumentation will enable fundamental research activities in several key areas. Researchers will investigate interaction models between humans and robots in a dynamic environment to develop effective control strategies for human-robot collaboration. Additional projects will study human perception, biomechanics of human movement under various stimuli, and development of assistive technologies and training protocols to enhance motor skills and learning. The instrumentation will also enable researchers to develop models and evaluation metrics for human interactions in complex environments that include multisensory feedback, perturbations, advanced modes of display, and multiple users. The VR system provides a cost-effective design solution that can be adapted, utilized, and evaluated to fit the needs of different projects that require a rich visual display that captures the dynamic variation in the real world.