Lunar Environment Rover and Situational Awareness System

The Lunar Environment Rover and Situational Awareness System is a fully immersive Virtual Reality experience built for interdisciplinary research and collaboration. Drawing upon subject matter expertise from talented University of Adelaide academics and professional staff in areas such as Space, Education, Psychology, Engineering, and Architecture, the Realities Extended team constructed this new tool to push the boundaries of what’s possible for Human Factors research. Everywhere the user looks, what they touch, and how they react to certain stimuli is tracked and measured!

The Lunar Rover Simulation currently features the following (with much more to come):

• 151x151km of real moon terrain data from the LOLA (Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter) dataset that was then meshed, textured and optimised to run in 6DoF (6 Degree of Freedom) Virtual Reality.
• A fully authored and drivable electric Lunar Rover simulation, complete with wheel/surface physics and interactive volumetric controls.
• Full game-engine integration with the University of Adelaide’s Hexapod motion platform – meaning that each virtual bump, rock and undulation can be felt.
• Tracking of the head, hands, fingers and eyes with authored analytics and biometrics systems to measure how users are interacting within the cockpit, their movements in relation to stimuli, and where they are looking during the simulation.
• Accurately mapped stars (based on the HYG catalogue) using a particle system instead of a traditional cube-mapped image.
• A tracked event and emergencies narrative system with objective oriented missions to be carried out.
• All 3D assets and sound design generated in house.