Augmented reality tower technology flight test

Augmented reality technology adapted for air traffic control tower applications was used to track an OH-58C helicopter in proximity to an airport. A camera and 'see-through' display system was used to measure the registration error of static airport features and dynamic test aircraft. The observed registration errors of the test aircraft were largely attributable to two terms of error: 1) aircraft surveillance transport latency, and 2) registration error (from all sources) of the static environment. Compensating for registration errors of static objects and modeling aircraft movement reduces registration errors for dynamic (aircraft) objects to ≤2° of error for aircraft-surveillance transport latency ≤ 5 seconds, and to ≤1° of error for transport latency ≤ 2 seconds.