Concept of a rotary chair capable of inducing vestibular nystagmus for perspective usage in aviation training

Spatial orientation is very important during flight for the pilot and his ability to correctly perform several parallel tasks related to piloting, navigation and communication. In the event that the pilot loses his own spatial orientation, he must rely solely on the on-board instruments, increasing his workload and the likelihood that the pilot will make a mistake. Further, flight illusions are associated with the loss of spatial orientation and may cause the pilot to perceive inconsistent information about his or her position. Despite the fact that loss of spatial orientation may be commonly encountered by civilian pilots, they are not prepared for these situations as part of their practical training. Although full-flight simulators adapted to induce illusions can be utilized in this context, they are expensive and essentially unused in the training of civilian pilots. This has led to the proposal of a potentially usable and cost-effective technical solution that could be employed in inducing certain types of illusions. Therefore, the article specifically deals with the design of a rotary chair suitable for inducing vestibular nystagmus and the validation of this solution, along with an introduction to the practicality of this solution in the aviation training and research environment.