Individualized Fatigue Meter for Space Exploration

To ensure mission success, astronauts must maintain a high level of performance even when work-rest schedules result in chronic sleep restriction and circadian misalignment, both of which contribute to fatigue and performance deficits unless effective countermeasures are used. We are proposing to build an Individualized Fatigue Meter that incorporates light inputs, sleep history, work schedule information, and brief performance tests (e.g. PVT SelfTest) to provide immediate individualized feedback about alertness. For the past 8 years, we have been actively developing many of the system components (funded by NASA, DOD, and NIH) that can be leveraged in this project. The result of this project will be a system prototype that can be evaluated using data already being collected in space flight analog expeditions (e.g., NEEMO, HMP) and on ISS. The critical need for an Individualized Fatigue Meter has been identified as a priority outlined in the Behavioral Health and Performance Integrated Research Plan GAP 1.1.1. During Phase 2 we will build a prototype Individualized Fatigue Meter by developing: (1) an interactive graphical console; (2) a model-independent computational architecture; (3) a hybrid biomathematical fatigue model; and (4) a data fusion algorithm that statistically combines multiple inputs (Phase 2 TRL of 5-6).