SENVA

Project Lead & Lead Developer
January 2022 - September 2023

Surface Exploration & Navigation Visual Assistant (SENVA) is a proof of concept AR heads-up-display built on the HoloLens 2 platform for the NASA SUITS Challenge. SENVA aims to assist lunar/martian extraterrestial exploration by lowering the cognitive load and improving safety of astronauts. Being designed to work in a high risk environment, SENVA employs multimodal input (eye tracking, voice commands, and hand gestures) for redundancy, as well as a completely off-cloud natural language powered digital assistant trained on Apollo mission transcripts to understand domain-specific commands used in spaceflight operations. Additional features leverage the multitude of onboard sensors on the HoloLens 2, such as proximity terrain analysis using SLAM, dynamic pathfinding based on the location of the user and preloaded digital terrain models, search and rescue capabilities, and a blackbox feature for recording telemetry data.

Responsibilities

• Led a multidisciplinary team of 18 students across XR, AI, aeronautical engineering, and UI/UX disciplines
• Developed geospatial localization and navigation features which dynamically pathfinds and displays a breadcrumb trail to any user-specified location on a 3D map
• Developed a pipeline to download and integrate 3D models from Google Earth into SENVA for use in navigation features
• Trained members on how to develop on Unity and the OpenXR + MRTK frameworks
• Developed a streamlined toolchain setup process to expedite development on the Hololens 2
• Authored a 40 page project proposal that was approved by NASA, allowing our team to participate in 2023