SBIR-STTR Award

Military cockpits are flooded with multiple RF/EM signals and noise of varying frequencies and amplitudes. Little is known, however, of the actual impacts of these fields on pilots, as no monitoring is currently performed. Consequently, no efforts have been made to shield pilots from these fields. To address these unknown impacts on aircrew cognitive performance, Spotlight proposes to fully characterize the RF/EM environment of a typical cockpit using laboratory-grade equipment, then apply that knowledge to develop an RF Exposure and Cognitive Assessment Platform (RECAP). This flight-capable, portable system will enable in-flight measurements of the cockpit RF/EM environment and impact on neurology, physiology, and cognitive performance of aircrew. To rapidly achieve a flight-ready product, Spotlight will integrate portable RF/EM sensing with their TRL-9 SPYDR-ICS human performance ecosystem, designed to collect physiological aircrew data in flight and assess cognition impacts. A multi-stage approach is proposed, starting with emulated-cockpit lab testing, and progressing rapidly to aircraft ground testing and subsequent in-flight testing, leveraging Spotlight’s vast experience in aircrew physiology monitoring during flight. The end result is a comprehensive understanding of the cockpit EM/RF fields and impacts on aircrew cognition AND a wide-reaching commercially available research platform for RF exposure and cognitive impact assessment.

The cockpits of current day aircraft are filled with radio frequency (RF) signals and electromagnetic (EM) fields. However, tittle is known of the RF/EM field characteristics or potential impacts of these fields on aircrew physiology and cognitive performance. This study proposes to measure pilot cognition will in a simulated flight environment with EM/RF fields analogous to the cockpit of a military jet aircraft along with a battery of cognitive tasks designed to emulate the demands of controlled flight, correlated with physiological parameters tracked simultaneously with SPYDR (Standalone Performance Yielding Deliberate Risk), a physiological sensor device specifically developed and validated for monitoring pilots the dynamic environments of flight in fighter jet aircraft. Exposure to RF-EMR will be simulated at exposure levels measured in live cockpits during in-flight tests collected as preliminary data by a data acquisition sensor system developed by the team in Phase I. The proposed study seeks to develop a Cognitive Test Battery that is comprehensive enough to measure pilot cognition while being exposed to EM/RF. By measuring the exact amount of EM/RF in a cockpit during flight, and by constructing an anechoic chamber, that limits forms of ambient radiation while allowing the researchers to control the amount of RF/EM fields, we can systematically study the effects of EM/RF on pilot cognition. Cognitive tasks assessments, overseen by an expert in experimental psychology, will be broken-down into specific measuring and analysis of cognitive functioning, such as signal detection, discrimination, saturation, misprioritization, complacency, spatial disorientation, working memory, attentional capacity, decision-making, and arousal/fatigue. To the extent that pilot cognition is slower or less accurate, deficits in flight performance will be observed. In the real world, this may have an impact on flight safety and may necessitate solutions to mitigate pilot exposure to EM/RF in the cockpit. During this Phase II effort, specially designed instrumentation hardware will be developed by the team, integrated with the SPYDR platform, and verified/optimized via lab testing to enable in-flight measurements within the space constraints of a modern military aircraft. This newly designed RF/EM instrumentation will be carefully selected and modified (as needed) to capture only the target signals of interest (derived by first collecting the full RF/EM signature of the environment) while maximizing performance (e.g., optimizing dynamic range and bandwidth to match the target signals) and eliminating unnecessary functionality. The end result is a comprehensive understanding of the EM/RF fields in the cockpit environment and impacts on aircrew cognition AND a wide-reaching commercially available testing and research platform, SPYDR RECAP, for real-time field exposure and cognitive impact assessment.