One of the first Europeans to experience the NASA VIEW Virtual Reality (VR) system in 1987, and having established the first industrial VR team at the UK’s National Advanced Robotics Centre, Professor Bob Stone brings over 30 years of award-winning experience in human factors and simulation experience in a range of application domains, from defence to healthcare and from subsea environments to space. Elected an Academician of the Russian International Higher Education Academy of Sciences in Moscow, in 2000 Bob was accredited by General Klimuk, Director of Russia’s Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre as responsible for “introducing VR into the cosmonaut space programme”. Bob adopts a very pragmatic approach to Human Factors research – an approach that has taken him from Royal Navy vessels conducting close-range weapons and missile trials to underwater operations onboard submarines and rescue submersibles; from oil and gas support platforms in the North Sea to remotely operated vehicle trials in the waters around Scotland; and from search-and-rescue helicopters over the mountains and coasts of Wales and Cornwall to operating theatres and medical units throughout the UK, US and South Africa. His most recent research, developing innovative Mixed Reality solutions for the training of defence paramedics in simulated mission contexts and platforms, is particularly relevant to future Blue Abyss outer and inner space activities.
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