Brandeis researcher awarded NASA grant to improve safety
New project aims to combat disorientation in space
Disorientation impacts many pilots and astronauts in space, and it could be fatal as they lose control of their spacecraft — but a researcher at Brandeis is looking for solutions and was recently awarded a grant from NASA to tackle the problem.
The core of Vivekanand Pandey Vimal’s project, which will kick off late next month, is creating a bond between human and machine that can help astronauts maintain control during the split second when they don’t even know which way is up.
“Within a few seconds or a minute, you are in a situation that you cannot recover from,” Vimal told the Herald at the Ashton Graybiel Spatial Orientation Lab at Brandeis University. “You are plunged into a situation where you cannot even trust your own senses.”
Vimal works with a multi-axis rotation system that simulates disorientation during space flight and participants seated in the machine work to right themselves using a joystick.
Vimal will explore the use of vibrational devices worn on the skin’s surface that start to buzz if a participant begins to drift, tilt or lose control. The vibrations could tell an astronaut which way they need to turn to stay on track.
Half the participants in Vimal’s study will train with the vibrotactile devices before getting into the multi-axis rotation system to build up a bond with the technology and the other half will use the device without prior training.
He predicts that those who trained with the vibrational devices will perform better than those who did not. If he’s right, the results could help inform future missions to Mars and the moon.
Vimal’s project was chosen by NASA over 58 others. He started thinking about the use of vibration technology when he was a teacher at Waltham High School more than a decade ago. Vimal said when he saw that NASA was interested in the tech, he worked up a proposal.
He has now been at Brandeis for 10 years at the lab that’s funded by the Translational Research Institute for Space Health.
Vimal said research on spatial disorientation and vibrational devices could help astronauts and many others.
Spatial disorientation is one of the leading causes of death in military pilots, said Vimal, and civilian pilots also struggle with it. The vibration technology could help those pilots, and could also be used in rehabilitation settings to assist people with medical conditions that affect their balance.
Vimal said it’s “definitely possible” that astronauts and pilots of the future will fly with vibrotactile devices.