This project will achieve an unobtrusive, wearable sensor array to collect environmental, physiological, and subjective measures associated with physical and cognitive fatigue. The proposed innovation, called the Warfighter Fatigue Data Acquisition System (WFDAS), will be an unobtrusive, modular sensor array to capture, synchronize, and download data related to: (1) actigraphy; (2) ship motion; (3) vibration levels; (4) noise levels; (5) ambient temperature; (6) light levels; and (7) subjective measures related to fatigue. Data will automatically download via open source wireless communication protocols (e.g., Bluetooth) to a networked laptop or smart phone where it can be exported for analysis or integrated with secondary applications (e.g., HSI experiment in a box 0x9D toolkit). This tool will streamline operational data acquisition and reduce the burden for study participants. The software may also be configured to enable study participants to self-administer 0x9D performance measures for use when experimenters are not able to be present (e.g., live fire testing). This project is directly responsive to the stated ONR goal to enable development and validation of performance shaping algorithms to predict the impact of environmental stressors including temperature, vibration, motion, noise, light and fatigue on warfighter readiness.
Benefit: Fatigue remains a significant risk to safety in 24-7 operational environments that involve fatigue stressors such as extended duty hours (>16 hours), night work, chronic sleep restriction, and jet lag. There is a need to quantify the fatigue risk, optimize schedules and procedures, and apply appropriate fatigue countermeasures to ensure acceptable levels of operational performance and safety. The Warfighter Fatigue Data Acquisition System (WFDAS) achieved in this project will meet the critical need to provide tools that can unobtrusively capture, synchronize, and download environmental, physiological, and subjective measures associated with physical and cognitive fatigue. This tool will inform Human Systems Integration (HSI) decisions related to ship design and planning of Navy operations. Commercial variants of this technology represent a compelling market opportunityparticularly for environments where fatigue-related human error can be dangerous and costly. Examples include first responders (e.g., emergency medical care, transportation, police and fire protection) and 24-hour industrial operations (e.g., power plants, manufacturing, transportation). This technology can be applied in these fatigue-sensitive operational environments to enhance scheduling procedures and implement fatigue countermeasures.
Keywords: environmental fatigue stressors, environmental fatigue stressors, physical and cognitive fatigue, Human Systems Integration research, fatigue countermeasure, ubiquitous and pervasive computing, Actigraphy, wearable sensors
