Phase II Amount
$1,045,836
The primary objective of the MUSTER Phase II effort will be to develop, validate, and transition the PASS MUSTER technology to predict, diagnose, and mitigate motion-induced performance degradation within Naval and Marine Corps operational environments. Pursuant to this effort, the following technical objectives are proposed: Objective 1: Complete development and validation of predictive questionnaires and scoring algorithms; Objective 2: Complete development and validation of multi-modal diagnostic hardware; data synchronization, fusion, and visualization software; and diagnostic algorithms; Objective 3: Complete design and development of 3 mitigation technology platforms; Objective 4: Conduct experimental comparison of mitigation technology platforms; and Objective 5: Work with transition partners to establish technology transition agreement.
Benefit: The ability to distinguish between sleep-related fatigue, physical fatigue, and motion-induced fatigue will assist in identifying countermeasures and mitigating errors. The ability to characterize and detect motion sickness will also assist in developing countermeasures and mitigating human performance degradation. Areas of need within current naval operations that this product addresses including but are not limited to: 1) Quantitative data that informs and educates individuals and supervisors about sopite syndrome 2) A measure of crew performance risk 0x9D as a function of ship dynamics and duty assignments 3) The use of sensor technologies to accurately predict performance degradation 4) A measure that is both sensitive to and specific about performance degradation related to sleep deprivation-induced fatigue, motion-induced fatigue, or some combination of the two. This information is crucial in the deployment of countermeasures for performance improvement. There are a number of potential customers for the PASS MUSTER technology. These customers include individuals from both the military and civilian sectors. Within the military, there is a need for the PASS MUSTER system for research by naval architects and human factors engineers interested in conducting operational assessment of boats, ships, or new seating systems. In terms of apparent motion, more and more military training is being performed using simulators, apparent motion induced performance degradation is a concern during training; and also as unmanned vehicles are being used more (especially UAVs), motion perceived during teleoperation and resulting motion-induced performance degradation should be considered. The customers for PASS MUSTER consist of individuals who are involved with research in the military including but not limited to the: Naval Postgraduate School (NPS); Naval Surface Warfare Centers; Air Force Research Laboratories (AFRL); Naval Research Laboratories (NRL); and the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory (MCWL). In addition, customers include researchers from both academia and industry funded through government agencies including but not limited to: DoD, DARPA, DHS, and NASA. Additionally, PASS MUSTER can be deployed with commercial customers who are focused on assessing health and fit for duty status. There are several emerging companies that would be interested in the data that PASS MUSTER provides including but not limited to: Body Media, Nike, Jawbone, and FitBit. There are a multitude of potential customers from a variety of industries who are concerned about fit for duty status. For example, commercial truck drivers and pilots are examples of potential customers who realize that fitness for duty is critical for job performance and safety.
Keywords: Sopite Syndrome, Augmented Reality, Physiological Monitoring, Human Performance, Motion Sickness, Motion-induced fatigue, data visualization, Motion-Induced Interruptions
