Human performance in adverse and demanding environments
Team AHEAD is a multi-disciplinary group from different departments within TNO, with experts in the area of human physiology, simulation and modelling, Augmented and Virtual Reality, psychophysics, monitoring and sensing, gaze tracking, didactics, engineering and good clinical practice.
We have been combining these disciplines for many years to help improve human performance in high-demanding and adverse environments. Team AHEAD provides advice, guidelines, products and interventions through applied research, having a nationally and internationally leading position. Our focus is on the aerospace, automotive, and maritime markets, both civil and military.
Research topics
The applied research projects of team AHEAD cover a variety of human factors aspects, such as spatial disorientation, motion sickness, fatigue, hypoxia, startle and surprise. These aspects are being imposed by stressors such as physical and visual motion, g-loads, shocks and vibrations, workload and air quality. Furthermore, our applied research covers topics on training and selection, such as training effectiveness, competencies, retention and skill decay, emergency training, and personnel attrition.
Example projects
Team AHEAD is involved in the following example projects, and many more.
Aircrew Performance in Adverse Conditions
This Defence programme focuses on the effects of adverse operational conditions (stressors) on the physical and cognitive performance of fifth-generation aircrew. The central question is to what extent human operators can perform their task, which involves processing of a large amount of information in conditions with physical motion, g-loads, heat and cold, hypoxia, degraded visual environments, spatial disorientation and startle. We investigate how these stressors can be reproduced in a simulator environment for both research and training, and we create a mathematical model to predict the effects of a (combination of) physical, physiological and cognitive load. This programme contributes to research within the innovation platform AEOLUS, a collaboration between the Royal Netherlands Air Force (CMA) and TNO for improving human performance under extreme conditions in military aerospace.
Modelling human motion and orientation perception
The TNO’s mathematical motion perception model consists of transfer functions representing the dynamics of the human vestibular and visual systems. With the model, the perceived motion and attitude, as well as motion sickness can be predicted.
Simulation of UPset Recovery in Aviation (SUPRA)
In this project an enhanced aerodynamic aircraft model has been developed, together with new motion cueing solutions including g-forces. These capabilities enable airline pilots to recognize and manage unusual attitudes and stall events in a moving-base flight simulator.
Helicopter Underwater Egress Training (HUET)
The HUET training effectiveness is investigated to improve HUET emergency training in terms of frequency, personalized training, e-learning, and practical support.
Measuring pilots’ visual behavior
The pilots’ instrument scanning (crosschecking) and flight performance are investigated in relation to spatial disorientation, unexpected events, hypoxia, workload, etc.
Augmenting Military Performance through Resilience Enhancement (AMPERE)
Cognitive stress is induced with a virtual reality environment. The stress level is measured, classified and feedback is provided.
Shocks and vibrations aboard FRISC
In this project, human body accelerations are measured aboard Fast Raiding Interception and Special Forces Crafts. Based on the results, recommendations and norms are developed to minimize the risk of physical complaints and injuries.
Spatial Disorientation Investigation Tool (SDiT)
Based on the TNO motion-perception model, a tool is being developed to detect and recognize spatial disorientation illusions. The tool visualizes in-flight motion and attitude perception to support analysis of aircraft motions for the potential of inducing spatial disorientation in pilots.
Hypoxia in a moving-base flight simulator
This project is targeted to improve the operational realism of a hypoxia training environment. Applied research is performed on the effects of hypoxia in relation to flight tasks in a moving-base flight simulator.
Startle and surprise in aviation
In this project, simulator-based training interventions are being developed for airline pilots to cope with startle and surprise.
Motion sickness in self-driving cars
In this project, the ride control of self-driving cars is being optimized for comfort to minimize the built-up of motion sickness.
Facilities
Team AHEAD has access to a state-of-the-art laboratory, featuring a wide range of facilities, such as the DESDEMONA centrifuge-based simulator, the RNLAF Advanced Spatial Disorientation simulator, the TNO driving simulator, the LIMOSINE linear motion simulator, a 3D rotating chair, climate chamber, the RNLAF hypobaric chamber, human centrifuge and Helicopter Underwater Egress Trainer (HUET), learning technology and gaming laboratory and several HMD-based virtual environments.
Read more
Human Performance
The Human Performance (HP) expertise group focuses on the optimization and improvement of human performance in challenging circumstances. Read moreSUPRA
EU Project: Simulation of UPset Recovery in Avaition Read moreDesdemona: The ultimate motion simulator
With its multi-purpose DESDEMONA simulator TNO definitely keeps pushing the limits of motion simulation. DESDEMONA is a motion simulator, disorientation trainer and advanced research lab, all in one.... Read moreMotion sickness and performance
A moving platform - like a ship or an aircraft - exerts a profound influence on our sense of balance and orientation. The human body strongly reacts to movement, leading to e.g. spatial disorientation,... Read morePerformance and health monitoring
Dutch military personnel will increasingly be involved in global missions in extreme conditions. This means we will need a tool for remote soldier performance and health monitoring. TNO and new sensor... Read more
- Artificial Intelligence
- Application areas
- Use cases
- Program line 1: Safe autonomous systems in an open world
- Program line 2: Responsible human-machine interaction
- Secure learning in money laundering detection
- Fair decision making in the job market
- Secure learning in diabetes-2 advice
- Diagnosing for printer maintenance
- Subsidence monitoring
- Fair decision making in justice
- Augmented worker for smart industry
- Energy balancing for smart homes
- Secure learning in oncology research
- Innovation monitoring in policy
- News
- Defence, Safety & Security
- Roadmaps
- Operations & Human Factors
- Climate Chambers for Research into Human Performance
- Desdemona: The ultimate motion simulator
- LT Lab: the TNO learning technology laboratory
- Performance and health monitoring
- Motion sickness and performance
- The neurobiology of Stress
- NetForce Command: an alternative to hierarchical command and control
- Operational military performance in a virtual world
- SUPRA
- Simulation Live Virtual and Constructive
- Concept Development & Experimentation
- IAMD: Integrated Air & Missile Defence
- JROADS
- FACSIM
- Helicopter studies
- Replacement of the F-16
- MARVEL / Comprehensive Approach
- TNO ACE: Advanced CD&E Environment
- Integrated approach to Dutch Royal Navy patrol ships
- Operational analysis during military operations
- SketchaWorld: from sketch to virtual world
- Camouflage
- Information & Sensor Systems
- Digital Resilience of The Netherlands
- LFAS - Low Frequency Active Sonar
- Tanker Remote Vision System
- Platform signatures
- TNO shapes the future of MMICs and RFICs
- CARPET: Computer-Aided Radar Performance Evaluation Tool
- Underwater Warfare and Security
- Wide Area Motion Imagery WAMI
- SAKAMATA: sonar and marine mammals
- PARANOID: rapid information processing
- Mine analysis and threat evaluation
- Ship acoustics and underwater acoustic signatures
- PERSEUS Wind Turbine Radar Interference Assessment tool
- Electromagnetic security
- Operating safely at sea
- Operations at sea
- Ocean Space
- National Security
- A new vision on modernizing the emergency reporting process
- Social media in the security sector
- Automatic Video Compilation and Analysis System (AVACS)
- The Dutch Cyber Cube Method: Improving Human Capital for SOCs and CSIRTs
- Concealed weapon detection
- FP7 Project IMPACT Europe
- Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) policies in Europe
- @MIGO: border control
- Smarter Surveillance, man, machine, synergy
- Cyber Security of Industrial Control Systems
- Privacy enhancing techniques in cyber security data sharing
- Driving Innovation in Crisis Management with DRIVER+
- Crisis management: new challenges, new opportunities
- The learning professional: resilient and deployable for the long term
- Protection, Munitions & Weapons
- Weapons systems control and analysis
- Weapon Effects & Protection Center
- Firepower
- Protection and survivability of vehicles
- Naval protection and survivability
- Infrastructure protection and survivability
- World-class ballistics research
- Countering Explosive Threats
- Materials for protection concepts
- Processing of Propellants, Explosives and Pyrotechnics
- Ammunition Safety
- Ballistic Performance and Personal Protection
- Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Protection
- Anticipating accidents, incidents and threats
- Protecting those who protect us
- Process Safety Solutions: Expertise in Handling Hazardous Conditions Safely
- Expertise groups
- Acoustics and Sonar
- Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Protection
- Electronic Defence
- Energetic Materials
- Explosions, Ballistics and Protection
- Human Behaviour and Organisational Innovation
- Human Machine Teaming
- Human Performance
- Intelligent Autonomous Systems
- Intelligent Imaging
- Military Operations
- Modelling, Simulation and Gaming
- Networked Organisations
- Radar Technology
- Weapon Systems
- Energy Transition
- Roadmaps
- Renewable electricity
- Towards large-scale generation of wind energy
- The important of support structures
- Wind turbines, fully in motion
- Innovation towards 10-20 MW offshore wind turbines
- Modeling 10MW+ turbines aerodynamically
- Design for Reliable Power Performance (D4REL)
- Optimised wind blade tip design
- Vortex-wake models in wind turbine design
- Modelling improvement wind turbine blades
- Converters for Clean, Low Cost Electricity
- Haliade X: largest wind turbine ever
- New research on blade tip improvements
- Less production per wind turbine, still higher yield
- Logistics innovative strength at home and abroad
- Wind turbine management and maintenance
- Wind farms in synergy with the environment
- Innovative methods for wind measurements
- Keeping the electricity grid stable when there’s a surplus of wind and solar
- Innovation and the rise of solar energy
- Solar farms respecting landscape and nature
- Solar panels on farmland
- Research innovative solar parks
- Better design of solar parks
- Savings on solar farm operations and maintenance
- Floating solar panels on inland waterbodies
- Offshore solar energy
- National Consortium Solar in Landscape
- National Consortium Solar on Water
- Field lab floating solar
- Research into environmental effects of solar, wind energy
- Solar energy on buildings and infrastructure
- Solar panels in façades
- Solar windows
- More focus on safety of solar systems
- Solar heat and PV-T
- Roofs for solar energy
- Noise barriers producing solar energy
- Solar energy in road surfaces and crash barriers
- Solar panel energy generated on dikes
- Solar and infrastructure
- Outdoor test facility for BIPV(T)
- Solar Highways
- Solar-powered cars
- Mass customization
- Solar panel efficiency
- New technologies make PV more versatile
- Webinar: Innovations in solar energy technologies
- Putting Europe back in the lead in solar panel production
- System transition
- The social aspects of the energy transition
- TNO facilities for research into environmental effects of solar and wind energy
- Effective interventions to increase energy efficiency and reduce energy poverty
- Green and Ease under one roof
- Capacity building programme for energy efficiency in industry
- Zooming in on the future to make the right choices
- Scenarios for a climate-neutral energy system
- A fair system without energy poverty
- Financing the energy transition
- LAUNCH
- Successful neighbourhood approach: motivate residents
- Towards a reliable, affordable and fair energy system
- Towards CO2 neutral industry
- Reducing CO2 emissions through capture, use and storage
- SEWGS: revolutionary CO2-reduction technology and blue hydrogen production
- STEPWISE and FReSMe: CO2 reduction solutions for the steel industry
- 3D-printing for CO2 capture productivity increase
- Multi-partner ALIGN-CCUS project
- CEMCAP
- Reduce emissions steel industry
- CO₂ capture with AVR
- On-site CO₂ Capture Services: reducing emissions cost effectively
- SEDMES: Efficient technology to convert CO2 to useful product
- Hydrogen for a sustainable energy supply
- Optimising production hydrogen
- Hydrogen storage and transport
- Hydrogen, fuel and feedstock
- H-vision: blue hydrogen to accelerate carbon-low industry
- 15 things you need to know about hydrogen
- World first: Green hydrogen production in the North Sea
- New research centre for hydrogen production
- Identifying the future international chain of green hydrogen
- Opportunities for green hydrogen for the manufacturing industry investigated
- Hydrogen from offshore wind: optimising the electricity grid
- Faraday lab: optimising and scaling up electrolysis
- Blue hydrogen paves the way for green hydrogen
- Biomass to fuels and feedstock
- ARBAHEAT - Sustainable future for coal-fired power stations possible through conversion to biomass
- AMBITION Advanced biofuel production from lignin rich residues
- BECOOL EU Brazilian cooperation on advanced biofuels
- Horti-BlueC - a new EU cooperation on reducing Bio-waste and CO2-footprint in horticulture
- UNRAVEL - valorization of lignocellulosic biomass
- MacroFuels advanced biofuels from seaweed
- BRISK2 Biofuel Research Infrastructure for Sharing Knowledge
- New facility for seaweed processing
- TORWASH technology successful for waste water treatment and recycling plastics
- Biofuels lab: Making transport more sustainable with biofuels
- Take-Off: Sustainable aviation fuels from CO2, water and green energy
- HEREWEAR: Circular textiles from locally-sourced bio-based materials
- Transition to e-fuels: a strategy for HIC Rotterdam
- Re-use of existing infrastructure to accelerate the energy transition
- Sustainable Industrial Heat System
- 4 pioneering routes to a CO2 neutral industry
- Research facility Industrial Electrification accelerates greening of Rotterdam port
- Mollier facility: innovating in industrial drying technology
- Research facility for negative CO2 emissions
- Carnot lab accelerates sustainable industrial heat management
- Using energy and raw materials efficiently in industry
- e-Missi0n MOOI: TNO supports Dow and Shell in electric cracking
- CO2 reduction requires improvement of industrial processes
- Making the industrial energy transition feasible and affordable
- Sustainable subsurface
- Geological Survey of the Netherlands
- Geological Survey of the Netherlands
- 100 years of geological mapping
- GeoTOP
- Sand, gravel and clay extraction
- GIS and other tools for interactive planning
- DINO, Data and Information of the Dutch Subsurface
- BRO: the Dutch Key Register of the Subsurface
- Sustainable use and management Flemish-Dutch subsurface
- Petroleum Geological Atlas of the Southern Permian Basin
- 3D Subsurface mapping of the Dutch offshore
- Geological Survey of the Netherlands across borders
- Towards an energy-producing environment
- Expertise
- Industry
- Roadmaps
- Flexible & Free-form Products
- Space & Scientific Instrumentation
- Semiconductor Equipment
- Smart Industry
- Expertise groups
- Buildings, Infrastructure & Maritime
- Roadmaps
- Safe and Sustainable Living Environment
- Infrastructure
- Sustainable buildings: towards an energy-producing built environment
- Building innovation
- Greenhouse design
- Digitisation in construction
- Smart megastructures
- Expertise groups
- Circular Economy & Environment
- Roadmaps
- Circular economy
- Environment & Climate
- Sustainable Chemical Industry
- Expertise groups
- Healthy Living
- Roadmaps
- Health Technology & Digital Health
- Biomedical Health
- Work
- Youth
- Expertise groups
- Traffic & Transport
- Roadmaps
- SMART and Safe Traffic and Transport
- Societal impact for accessibility and liveability
- Decision-making information based on facts for municipalities
- Making disruptive technologies practicable
- Accessible, healthy and vibrant cities
- CITYkeys – Performance evaluation framework for smart cities and projects
- Big data ecosystems: collaborating on data-controlled cities
- Knowledge mediator puts an end to bickering
- Intact – Climate resilient critical infrastructure
- Organising mobility
- Smart mobility and logistics
- Smart vehicles
- Smart Mobility Research Centre SMRC
- Sustainable Traffic and Transport
- Sustainable Mobility and Logistics
- Improving air quality by monitoring real-world emissions
- Emission factors for road traffic
- Measuring the emissions of powered two wheelers
- Emissions of particulate matter from diesel cars
- Random Cycle Generator
- EnViVer: model traffic flow and emissions
- Measuring real-world emissions with TNO’s Smart Emissions Measurement System (SEMS)
- Measuring the emissions of trucks and buses
- Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Commercial Road Transport
- Measuring the emissions of non-road mobile machinery
- Emission measures in practice
- The transition to CO2-neutral mobility in 2050
- Sustainable Vehicles
- Innovative technologies for zero-emission vehicles
- CO2 reduction by high-efficiency Flex Fuel technology with extremely low emissions
- Actual energy consumption and emissions
- Automotive Battery Research
- Making transport more sustainable by means of electric vehicles
- Energy Efficient Electric Bus E3Bus
- eCoMove
- How hydrogen can accelerate energy transition in the transport sector
- Green performance of ships
- Expertise groups
- Information & Communication Technology
- Roadmaps
- Fast open infrastructures
- Data sharing
- Trusted ICT
- Efficiency, effectiveness, quality and the costs of systems
- Expertise groups
- Strategic Analysis & Policy
- Expertise groups
- Strategic Business Analysis
- Strategy & Policy
- Orchestrating Innovation
- Tech Transfer
Sanne Huveneers
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