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The U.S. Navy ‘Kraken’ Disorientation Research Device (DRD)

The Disorientation Research Device (DRD), commonly referred to as the ‘Kraken’, is the world’s largest human use aeromedical research motion platform and the only one in the Western Hemisphere. It is maintained and operated by the Naval Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory (NAMRL), located at Naval Medical Research Unit Dayton (NAMRU-D), Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.

The primary purpose of the DRD is to examine the effects of motion on human perception and orientation, which is of interest to aerospace and operational military medicine applications. The DRD was designed as a basic acceleration research motion platform. However, it can also be used in an applied manner, coupling motion and visual cues experienced during passive or in-the-loop control of a vehicle. With the introduction of flight controls into the capsule, human-in-the-loop (closed loop) control is employed as a mechanism to study the effects of spatial disorientation (SD) on pilots and crew. The DRD was designed and built by Environmental Tectonics Corporation (ETC), in Southampton, PA.

Overview

The DRD concept originated due to the planned loss of legacy acceleration research capabilities of the original NAMRL at Naval Air Station Pensacola, in Pensacola, FL. The relocation of NAMRL to Dayton, Ohio, resulted from the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission decision. The DRD contract was awarded to ETC on 29 January 2009. ETC’s product name for the DRD is the Gyrolab GL-6000. On 17 June 2016, the DRD was unveiled, and the facility in which it is housed was dedicated as the Captain Ashton Graybiel Acceleration Research Facility during a ribbon-cutting ceremony held by the Naval Medical Research Unit Dayton. The DRD was finally accepted for delivery by the U.S. Navy on 14 October 2016.

The DRD’s six axes of motion may be used to imitate motion aspects of land, sea, air and space vehicles. It is capable of motion in yaw, pitch, roll, and heave, which allows simulation of planetary and linear accelerations. This versatility allows researchers to create a wide range of disorienting scenarios to study their effects on human physiology and performance. It has been successfully used to provide both motion cueing and sustained acceleration representative of a wide range of aerospace vehicles, from the Beechcraft T-6 Texan II trainer to a government reference model version of a Lunar Lander.

The DRD research capsule is customized to suit specific research project requirements. It has been successfully outfitted with many combinations of custom, locally designed, and commercial off the shelf components. These include, but are not limited to: touch screen visual displays, physiologic sensors such as electroencephalogram, electromyograph, various heart rate monitors, and eye tracking; haptic indicators, virtual reality, optical motion tracking system, subwoofer, mask-on breathing system, motorized head-on-neck rotator, inertial measurement units, transport aircraft flight deck seats, various flight controls (joysticks, throttles, rudder pedals), and may be configured for complete darkness with subject monitoring via infrared cameras.

In a typical DRD study, one or two subjects (side by side) are seated in a cockpit-like enclosure (capsule) nested inside the motion platform. Researchers manipulate combinations of respiratory, visual, auditory, and device motion conditions to test perception, generate custom flight scenarios in order to induce SD, or to test display designs on crew performance. The subjects' physiological responses, eye movements, cognitive function, and motor performance can be measured to gain a better understanding of the interaction effects of disorientation and to evaluate potential interventions.

Research Capabilities

• The ability to simulate aviation or other dynamic environments with human-in-the-loop control, manual control, or programmable device motion.
• A fully networked capsule.
• Dedicated power for research equipment.
• A real-time data acquisition system.
• Gaze and motion tracking for up to two occupants.
• High-resolution large field, various touch screens, and virtual reality displays.
• Customized communication through headsets, helmets or ambient microphone and speakers. In-capsule Active Noise Reduction, spatial audio, communication earplugs, and military life support equipment.

Motion Capabilities

The DRD supports simultaneous motion of all six degrees of freedom. The performance range of each of the six axes are described in the following table.

Axis	Position Range	Maximum Velocity	Maximum Acceleration
Pitch	±360° continuous	180 °/s	200 °/s2
Roll	±360° continuous	180 °/s	200 °/s2
Yaw	±360° continuous	180 °/s	200 °/s2
Vertical	±3.0 ft (0.9144 m)	6.6 ft/s (2.01168 m/s)	16.1 ft/s2 (4.907 m/s)
Horizontal	±16.5 ft (5.0292 m)	11 ft/s (3.3528 m/s)	16.1 ft/s2 (4.907 m/s)
Planetary	±360° continuous	150 °/s	50 °/s2

Technical Specifications

• Total System Weight: 420,000 lbs. (18,143.69 kg); 245,000 lbs. (111,130.1 kg) of rotating mass
• Drive Motors: 22 electric motors producing 4,500 HP at peak
• Payload Space: 32 cubic ft. (0.906139 cubic meters) of configurable payload space capable of supporting up to 680 lb. (308.44281 kg) of payload
• Acceleration Field: Sustained acceleration field up to 3.0 G in any direction
• Time to Max G: ≤ 5 seconds (planetary axis velocity of 137.5 deg/sec)

Motion Control Modes

Manual Mode

DRD motion can be controlled using a set of two joysticks and a rotary dial embedded in the Control Room Operator Control Console. One joystick controls the Pitch, Roll and Yaw axes, one joystick controls the Vertical and Horizontal axes, and the rotary dial control the speed and direction of the Planetary axis.

Profile Mode

A motion profile consists of a series of timed instructions for axes to achieve certain kinematic conditions (i.e. position, velocity, and acceleration). Motion profiles are created and stored for future use. Profiles are created and selected for execution using the Graphical User Interface(GUI) computer.

Maintenance Mode

Maintenance Mode is used specifically for moving the DRD axes for preventative or corrective maintenance purposes.

External Motion Control Mode

In order to provide flexibility to support current and future research needs, the DRD was delivered with an External Motion Control (EMC) interface. This interface allows NAMRU-D to design their own algorithms for generating motion commands as required to support research activities.

For applied studies employing passive subject occupants (open loop), motion commands originate from recorded flight simulation scenarios. These flights are recorded with a test pilot flying the DRD (closed loop) via a custom T-6 Texan aircraft modeled within Laminar X-Plane. For active pilot-in-the-loop flight-based studies the capsule occupant’s flight control inputs are processed by a custom motion algorithm which computes and washes out DRD motion commands based on flights physics data output from the flight simulation. The motion commands are transmitted to the DRD Motion Control Computer via the EMC interface.

Research Applications

DRD based research has included:

• Testing of interventions to mitigate the effects of SD on aviation safety
• Modelling perception with multivariate physiologic stressors under motion conditions
• Developing countermeasures to airsickness, motion sickness, and space motion sickness
• Measuring the contribution of sensory spatial reflexes to SD in flight.

By simulating real-world disorientation conditions, the device helps in developing better training programs and safety protocols.

NASA and NAMRU-D SD Research Using ‘The Kraken’

In 2016, NASA Langley Research Center partnered with NAMRU-D to investigate loss of energy state awareness in commercial aviation by utilizing the DRD with realistic commercial transport flight deck complete with side-by-side seat configuration. The simulation featured prototype SD mitigation solutions for scenario-based testing and evaluation, incorporating haptic feedback for both alerting and guidance, as well as innovative visual and aural alerting displays. In a contextually representative operational environment, airline pilots were used for evaluation purposes. The DRD ensured a secure and regulated environment for assessing the effectiveness of the SD mitigation technology prototypes. This collaboration between NASA and NAMRU-D was a significant development in SD mitigation, with noteworthy implications for the safety of the aviation industry.

In August 2022, NASA’s Human Research Program (HRP) entered into a multi-year agreement with NAMRU-D to use the Kraken to conduct acceleration research in support of space exploration, to include applied, closed loop work specific to the Artemis program. Collaborative partnerships from the HRP effort include Johns Hopkins University, University of Colorado at Boulder, Royal Netherlands Air Force Center for Man in Aviation, and The Netherlands Organization.

Post-Delivery Upgrades

Selective Axis De-synchronization

The DRD was designed to ensure that simultaneous motion commands to multiple axes would result in the simultaneous motion of the axes. In order to achieve this synchronization, an artificial delay was added to slower-responding axes in order to match the response of the system’s slowest axis. These delays are on the order of hundreds of milliseconds.

In 2021, a software modification was made to allow for de-synchronization of the axis. This modification allows one or more axes to be unsynchronized and thus excluded from the artificial delay calculations. De-synchronization may be used to reduce the tracking delay if one or more of the slower axes do not need to be synchronized with the faster axes.

Remote Control

In 2022, a Remote-Control feature was added, allowing a tablet and a handheld gaming controller to remotely operate the Kraken for maintenance and demonstration purposes. This upgrade added an additional computer which communicates to the system using the EMC interface, mimicking the function of Manual Mode and replicating features of the GUI computer on the tablet and gaming controller.