Showcase
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Industrial
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Brahms VE: A Collaborative Virtual Environment for Mission Operations
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Atmosphere helps NASA plan for missions to Mars
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Conclusion
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Conclusions: Assessment of Technical Merit, Feasibility and Potential
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It is our belief that our work in Phase I exceeded all expectations in terms of the production of a high quality, working scenario in a web-ready browser-based environment using industry standard components. We believe that this environment has a high degree of uniqueness and technical merit, being (as far as we know) the first 3D visualization of a complex agent-based simulation that runs on standard computers over the Internet. The technical merit derives from the use of extensible industry standard components such as JavaScript, Java, an open commercial package like Adobe Atmosphere and the customizability and universality of web-based interfaces. We believe that this combination of high performance and standard equipment will lead to affordable yet sophisticated solutions for a number of NASA and industrial applications.
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Potential Applications of the Project Results in Phase III
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We believe that that the successful implementation of scenario 2 and resulting NASA internal interest in Phase I justifies Phase II continuation and points to good opportunity for use of Brahms VE in Phase III commercialization.
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NASA Purposes
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Beneficiaries of a proposed Phase II “production grade” implementation of Brahms VE could include a broad range of current NASA projects. Brahms VE projects discussed include: future HMP/MDRS science team support, Science Back Room for remote teams interacting with Mars 2003/MER surface operations, Mobile Agents (PSA, JSC robotics) simulation, ATV studies, in-situ simulation of International Space Station (ISS) operation and station mission control support, environments for online education and public outreach, and an important test of the system with the originally planned detailed recreation of the Apollo XVI ALSEP deployment. It is our long-term vision that simple positional transmitter devices could be utilized in an environment like the ISS to directly drive a Brahms VE model enabling mission control to have a 3D shared view of the ISS from the inside out. Mission control would therefore be able to use Brahms VE to not only simulate and plan for future work tasks but also actually view the tasks in action. The term “simulated live” might come to reality in a future commercialized version of Brahms VE.
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Commercial Purposes
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It is envisioned that numerous projects in government, industry, K-12 education and college/university, museums and science centers all converge on the need for the simulation, design and operation of complex 3D environments in which people work or interact. We anticipate a broad range of adoption of Brahms VE as a commercial product in Phase III. The DigitalSpace and Brahms teams (USRA/RIACS) have discussed commercialization possibilities on numerous occasions. One could imagine that expensive and complex projects such as the construction of large public spaces could benefit tremendously from Brahms VE.
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An Example:
Brahms VE in the visualization and construction of a new civic center
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| For example, a new civic center could first be modeled in Brahms VE to study patterns of movement of people and objects, and aesthetic as well as functional aspects such as security. Next, the same model could be previewed to the public and governmental sponsors. Another Brahms VE model could simulate and help optimize work practice during construction. Lastly, the actual civic center could be wired to transmit its state and its traffic live into the Brahms VE model to test hypotheses against the actual functioning of the finished center. In this process, many firms and agencies, as well as the general public, would be users and beneficiaries of Brahms VE. Environments such as Brahms VE could revolutionize the design, testing, construction and operation of environments ranging from shopping malls to factory floors. |