Volpe Center: Human Factors Division

PROJECTS:

Other Equipment

Ride Quality Measurements

The Volpe Center has recorded roll rate, bank angle, and acceleration in three axes during aircraft flights and aboard a simulator. This type of data was colleced to evaluate passenger acceptance of guideway alignments with frequent curves in very-high-speed (>200 mph) ground transportation systems. Ride-quality measurement equipment includes:

Systron-Donner Gyrochip roll-rate sensor, +/- 20 degrees/sec range
Entran Devices EGCS8-A-2 three axis accelerometer, +/- 2 g range

Above used with Computer Devices DAS08 data-acquisition card and laboratory Technologies Control for Windows software running in NEC 2205C notebook computer.

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Video Surveillance Systems

The Volpe Center makes frequent use of video surveillance equipment in human factors experiments. Video surveillance has been used to study workload among piots and air-traffic controllers; evaluation of driver responses to warning devices at railroad crossings, and studies of the behavior of sleep-deprived locomotive engineers. Current inventory of video surveillance equipment includes:

Panasonic AG-6760 time-lapse, computer controlled SVHS recorders
Panasonic AG-7400 Portable SVHS recorder with 4-channel audio and time-code
JVC BSR-611 professional SVHS recorder with editing capability
Sony Video-Walkman 8-mm recorder
Panasonic WL-324 miniature color cameras with wide-angle lenses
Panasonic WV-5000 system camera with Zoom lens
Bio-Electronics Systems time-code generator
Horita GPS interface
Miniature monochrome surveillance cameras for low-light conditions

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