Design and Development of an Augmented Reality Interface for Space Exploration

Abstract

The Holographic Augmented Reality Visualization Interface for Exploration (HARVIE) was developed for the 2022 NASA SUITS (Spacesuit User Interface for Students) challenge. HARVIE assists astronauts with elevated demands of the lunar surface through navigation, terrain sensing, and an optimal display of suit status elements (e.g., oxygen, battery, and heart rate). Considering environmental constraints, the system architecture promotes efficient cross modal communication between the mission control center, other astronauts, and the user interface. Currently, the system utilizes a hands-free modality such as speech recognition. Throughout the design process, we conducted heuristic evaluations on a low-fidelity prototype. Then, we implemented HARVIE into a high-fidelity prototype on the HoloLens 2 and utilized the Rapid Iterative Testing & Evaluation (RITE) method for human-in-the-loop testing. Lastly, we evaluated our final design at NASA Johnson Space Center. Our interface serves as a novel approach to enhance how astronauts navigate on missions using augmented reality.