Rapid Integration and Evaluation of Functional HMI Components in a Virtual Reality Aircraft Cockpit

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This research presents a Virtual Reality Flight Simulator (VRFS) for the rapid integration and evaluation of Human Machine Interface (HMI) prototypes in a functional aircraft cockpit environment. In contrast to engineering mock-ups or full flight simulators, the digital cockpit mock-up of the VRFS presented here has a major advantage—it can be adapted without time- and cost-intensive hardware conversions, which is ideal, particularly in the early stages of the design process. The virtual cockpit is also connected to a flight simulation. This means that not only ergonomic but also cognitive aspects of new HMI components can be evaluated. This leads to the main objective of the VRFS: Demonstrating novel systems alongside existing cockpit components while using realistic operational scenarios. Thus, the subject’s feedback does not only include comments on the HMI but also on its functional interaction with the cockpit ecosystem. This paper shows the technical setup of the VRFS and demonstrates the integration and evaluation of an HMI component in a use case.