Browsing by Author "Hunt Estevez, Chantil"
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Item An Augmented Reality Guidance and Operations System to Support the Artemis Program and Future EVAs(2021-07-21) Ahsan, Najya; Andersen, Michael; Baldwin, Peter; Brown, Jasmine; Chapman-Weems, Naiya; Hunt Estevez, Chantil; Hyland, William; Leonard, Blessing; Manlucu, John; Vandi, Michael; Yee, Claudia; Walsh, Greg; Vincenti, GiovanniIn preparation for the challenges of modern and future Lunar missions, NASA has decided to leverage augmented reality technology to aid astronauts to accomplish their lunar assignments and field work. This manuscript describes the work that students have created to meet the NASA SUITS Design Challenge, which is part of the Artemis Student Challenges. In order to develop a system designed to aid users through complex and possibly dangerous tasks, we propose the Augmented Reality Guidance and Operations System (ARGOS) which utilizes the Magic Leap One Augmented Reality Headset (ML1) to simulate the spacesuit of an astronaut on an EVA. Using the ML1, ARGOS presents a minimal, yet effective user interface designed to display vital information, provide instructions, and reduce the cognitive load for the user. We accomplish these tasks through the introduction of 3 main elements in our system: Voice Commands/Interaction, Remote Control Application, and the ARGOS-specific Operations Control, Translation, and Visual Interface Assistant, also known as OCTaVIA. The goal of ARGOS is to create a system that will ensure a user's ability to complete the given task with the utmost safety and efficiency, despite any communication failures that may occur. Lunar missions present a unique and dangerous set of challenges, and with the updated design of ARGOS, astronauts will have an available and usable system built specifically to help reduce cognitive load, aid completion of tasks, and increase safety, with the support of a cloud-like data processing infrastructure that lives on the network itself. This manuscript describes ARGOS as a training platform as well as a testbed for systems that will support human exploration. We also report preliminary tests of its effectiveness in terms of usability and efficiency. Lastly, we briefly describe how this system has become a significant platform for student engagement in a higher education context.Item A Lunar Spacewalk Simulation to Support the Artemis Outreach Program and Promote Remote Public Engagement(2021-07-21) Hunt Estevez, Chantil; Jones, Joshua; Shrestha, Sujan; Vincenti, GiovanniVideo game development is a discipline that has the capacity to create multi-objective systems, fulfilling the needs of Human In The Loop Testing as well as promote public immersion, and remote accessibility, via the World-Wide Web. University of Baltimore's contributions to the NASA S.U.I.T.S challenge clearly frames the utility of game development as a tool for distance engagement and usability feedback, using educational STEM themes. To accomplish these tasks, we created varying versions of the Lunar Surface Simulator via the Unity Game Editor in conjunction with Visual Studio; As well as its supporting 3D & 2D assets via Illustrator, Autodesk Maya (Non-Profit Educational License), Blender Modeling Engine and NASA's open source 3D library. Due to the nature of time-based survival simulations, our goal was aimed to engage players using the "Active Critical Learning Principle (Gee, 2007)" as a design framework. Simulation prototypes were designed to mimic how lost astronauts may solve problems using augmented and virtual reality systems on the Lunar Surface. To ensure user comprehension, custom UI design expanded options for players to choose from a variety of play styles that best suited their problem solving skills. User feedback was collected as post questionnaires to ensure player immersion and boost engagement on future iterations of the Lunar Surface Simulator. This manuscript describes how simulations can be used to engage the public on STEM topics. We share how the development of these simulations can be incorporated into HTML5 and other web and mobile platforms for remote public engagement, a tool that could be used in conjunction with remote educational activities. Finally, we discuss how web based accessibility has helped our team establish close rapport with video game and space enthusiasts of all ages during a global pandemic using the World-Wide Web.