- eXtended Reality (XR) based Aircraft Maintenance System with Cognitive Load Estimation Feature, Aeronautical Development Agency, MoD, India (INR 90.91L, 2024-2026)
- Human Factor Engineering Studies in Gaganyaan Program, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO, INR 37.66L, 2021-23)
- AR/VR and UI/UX Design Lab for HAL-IISc Skill Development Centre, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, (INR 42L, 2021-2022)
- Study Project on Advanced HMI Systems, Aeronautical Development Agency, MoD, India (INR 50.5L, 2019-2020)
- Reducing pilots’ cognitive load by facilitating human machine interaction in military aviation environment, Aeronautical Research and Development Board, MoD, India (INR 47.3L, 2017-2019)
- ERP PhD student sponsored by CSIR National Aerospace Laboratories
- ERP PhD student sponsored by Aeronautical Development Agency
- ERP MTech student sponsored by ISRO HSFC
- ERP PhD student sponsored by Indian Air Force
Our aviation related projects are developing eye gaze controlled Multi-Function Display (MFD) and Head Mounted Display system (HMDS) and can simultaneously estimate pilots’ cognitive workload from ocular parameters. As part of the research we collected ocular parameters during air to ground attack dives and -1G to +5G constant G-load manoeuvres in combat aircrafts. We also developed and demonstrated eye gaze controlled virtual and real flight simulators in Aero India 2019, 2021 and Defence Expo 2020. In 2020, the research was partially covered at the New Scientist . I am involved with designing the interior crew cabin of India’s maiden Human Space Flight mission. I am Departmental Curriculumn Committee member of HAL-IISc SDC.
I designed, implemented and investigated the Voyager Display experiemnt during Axiom 4 Mission, which was India's first mission to send astronaut at the International Space Station. Gp Capt Ajit Krishnan, one of four Astronaut Designates of India, undertook his MTech project with me and after graduation joined our research group as a PhD student. He developed a
VR Spacecraft Cokpit and evaluated HMI issues for deorbiting manoeuvres of spacecraft. Earlier, I undertook a project on human factor engineering involving developing a VR cockpit of Gaganayan and undertaking user studies with it. The VR cockpit has features of emergency response, changing interior appearance, lighting and adapting screen appearance based on a
Common User Profile reported at International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
Main Results
- We reported that pilots can undertake representative pointing and selection tasks at less than 2 secs on average and the accuracy of COTS eye gaze tracking glass is less than 5º of visual angle up to +3G, although it is less accurate at -1G and +5G. We used these results in developing a multimodal head and eye gaze movement based HMDS and in a user study involving standard ISO 9241 pointing task. The average pointing and selection times was significantly lower in the proposed system compared to traditional TDS.
- Ocular parameters like rate of fixation is significantly different in different flying conditions and significantly correlated with rate of descent during air to ground dive training task, normal load factor (G) of the aircraft during constant G level turn manoeuvres and pilot’s control inceptor and tracking error in simulation tasks.
- For deorbiting maneuver of a manned spacecraft, bottom view and flight stick based control is fastest while a switch based input id more fuel efficient.
- Fitts' Law remains valid in microgravity environment and after 2 days stay at microgravity, we did not find any significant different in pointing and selection times in a 2D ISO 9241 pointing task between ISS crew and students performing same task on ground.
Publications
- A Krishnan, Himanshu, D Chutani, AA Atulkar, D Bhatad, MR Kharsade, P Biswas, Human-in-the-Loop Spacecraft Maneuvers: Investigating Human Factors Through VR and Machine Learning, IEEE SPACE 2025
- S Saren, R Mariyappan, P Dey, D Ghose, P Biswas, Studying Human Modality Preferences in a Human-Drone Framework, Journal of Multimodal User Interface(JMUI 25), Springer
- A. Krishnan, H. Vishwakarma, M. Kharsade and P. Biswas, Comparison of View Orientation in Manned Spacecraft Through Virtual Reality Simulation, IEEE Space, Aerospace and Defence Conference (SPACE), Bangalore, India, 2024, pp. 820-823
- A Hebbar, AK Shah, S Vinod, A Pashilkar, P Biswas (2023). Cognitive load estimation in VR flight simulator. Journal of Eye Movement Research, 15(3)
- A Hebbar, A Pashilkar and P Biswas, Using Eye Tracking System for Aircraft Design - A Flight Simulator Study, Aviation, Taylor & Francis 2022
- PT Gaikwad, A Mukhopadhyay, A Muraleedharan, M Mitra and P Biswas, Developing A Computer Vision based System for Autonomous Taxiing of Aircraft, Aviation, Taylor & Francis 2023
- A Hebbar, K Bhattacharya, G. Prabhakar and P Biswas, Correlation Between Physiological and Performance-Based Metrics To Estimate Pilot’s Cognitive Workload, Frontiers in Psychology 2021
- M. D. Babu, JeevithaShree DV, G. Prabhakar, KPS Saluja and P. Biswas, Estimating Pilots’ Cognitive Load From Ocular Parameters Through Simulation and In-Flight Studies, Journal of Eye Movement Research, Bern Open Publishing, 12 (3), 2019
- LRD Murthy, A. Mukhopadhyay, S. Arjun, V. Yelleti, P. Thomas, MD Babu, and P Biswas, Eye-Gaze-Controlled HMDS and MFD for Military Aircraft, Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering 10(2), Purdue University Press, 2021
- JeevithaShree DV, KPS Saluja, LRD Murthy and P. Biswas, Operating different displays in military fast jets using eye gaze tracker, Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering 8(1), Purdue University Press, 2018
- S Arjun, A Hebbar, S Vinod and P Biswas, VR Cognitive Load Dashboard for Flight Simulator, ACM Symposium on Eye Tracking Research and Applications (ETRA) 2022
- P. Biswas and Jeevithashree DV, Eye Gaze Controlled MFD for Military Aviation, ACM International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI) 2018 (Acceptance rate 23%)
- LRD Murthy and P. Biswas, Deep Learning Based Eye Gaze Estimation Algorithms for Military Aviation, IEEE Aerospace 2022
- LRD Murthy, Multimodal Interaction for Real and Virtual Environments, ACM International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI) Doctoral Consortium 2020 (Acceptance rate 30%)
- Jeevithashree DV, K. P. Saluja and P. Biswas, Gaze Controlled Interface for Limited Mobility Environment, ACM International Conference on Designing Interactive Systems (DIS) 2018
- LRD Murthy, A. Mukhopadhyay, V Yelleti, S Arjun, P Thomas, MD Babu, KPS Saluja, JeevithaShree DV and P. Biswas, Evaluating Accuracy of Eye Gaze Controlled Interface in Military Aviation Environment, IEEE Aerospace 2020
- J. Rajesh and P. Biswas, Eye-gaze tracker as input modality for Military Aviation Environment, IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Computing, Instrumentation and Control Technologies
- M D Babu, JeevithaShree DV, G. Prabhakar and P. Biswas, Using Eye Gaze Tracker to Automatically Estimate Pilots’ Cognitive Load, 50th International Symposium of the Society for Flight Test Engineer (SFTE), sponsored by Airbus
- M D Babu, P. Biswas, G. Prabhakar, JeevithaShree DV and LRD Murthy, Eye Gaze Tracking in Military Aviation, Indian Air Force AVIAMAT 2018
