Control Center Fatigue Monitoring System

Abstract: The nature of military operations requires around-the-clock operation. Consequently military personnel responsible for overseeing routine as well as battlefield activity must work at times outside the weekday, daytime hours common in many other occupations. Given the serious consequences for US defense strategy and the safety of US servicemen and women, it is imperative that control center personnel maintain their alertness and cognitive functioning, even when working at times that run counter to human physiology. Effective fatigue management requires both personal planning and ergonomically designed work schedules. The control center environment provides the opportunity to introduce technology to provide real time monitoring and feedback to a fatigued operator. Foster-Miller and Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory propose development of the Control Center Fatigue Monitoring System to provide both a personal planning and predictive component, and real time feedback from a monitoring system. Our proposed system has a biological sensor component that will monitor multiple physiological indicators as well as an adaptive model that uses personal behavioral data along with real time sensor data to predict alertness levels for both active and passive tasks. Phase I will produce both the system architecture and plans for a validation study in Phase II. (P-040333)