UAV Operator mental workload:A neurophysiological comparison of mental workload and vigilance

Human Factors can offer insights into the nature of human performance across many different domains. The steady increase of unmanned systems presents not only a unique challenge in terms of defining the nature of human-system interaction, but also the demand for providing decision support systems to assist the human operate multiple of these systems, or indeed operate beyond line of visual sight. The nature of cognitive performance can involve a high degree of complexity and in many instances result in disagreement over what it is that is actually being measured. The main cognitive processes that tend to be discussed in terms of operating UAVs tends to focus on mental workload and situation awareness. However, other constructs, such as vigilance, may be considered as important when we examine the task of commanding a UAV – more so when a single operator is supervising multiple UAVs. This paper presents the findings of a study whereby participants were asked to perform tasks involving the control of a UAV. Neurophysiological assessment was carried out by application of functional near infra-red spectroscopy, and results are discussed in relation to how this technique can provide insight into higher cognitive functions related to UAV operator state

Human Performance Assessment:Evaluation and Experimental Use of Wearable Sensors for Brain Activity Measures

The emerging wearable human performance monitoring technologies can help evaluate the cognitive status and capacities of the crew in the cockpit as well as those operating ground control stations. Traditionally the use of behavioral measures and subjective metrics has been used to address cognitive factors associated with pilots or operators of safety critical systems. However, the advance in wearable physiologytechnologies could provide additional performance metrics directly driven from brain based measures, potentially validating subjective assessments and ultimately bringing us closer towardsmaintaining safe and effective performance. Furthermore, these techniques may also aidthe design and evaluation of new technologies that are being presented as increasing operational capacity, efficiency and safety across the aerospace domain. The measurement of real time brain activity from the operator can help evaluate decision making, and reliably compare workload burden of next generation system versus legacy systems in the air transportation domain. This paper outlines key cognitive areas of interest when attempting to explore the correlation between physiological state changes and psychological constructs. A number ofstudies are describedwhereby wearable systems, namely electroencephalography (EEG), and functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), are used to evaluate human performance.The potential advantages and challenges are discussed in relation to implementing these sensors in real operationalsettings