Responsible Center: NASA JSC
Grant Monitor: Williams, Thomas
Center Contact: 281-483-8773
thomas.j.will1@nasa.gov
Unique ID: 11596
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Solicitation / Funding Source: SBIR Phase II
Grant/Contract No.: NNX16CJ08C
Project Type: GROUND
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TechPort: No |
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| Human Research Program Elements: |
(1) HFBP:Human Factors & Behavioral Performance (IRP Rev H)
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| Human Research Program Risks: |
(1) BMed:Risk of Adverse Cognitive or Behavioral Conditions and Psychiatric Disorders
(2) HSIA:Risk of Adverse Outcomes Due to Inadequate Human Systems Integration Architecture
(3) Sleep:Risk of Performance Decrements and Adverse Health Outcomes Resulting from Sleep Loss, Circadian Desynchronization, and Work Overload
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| Human Research Program Gaps: |
(1) BMed-102:Given exposures to spaceflight hazards (space radiation, isolation), how do we identify individual susceptibility, monitor molecular/biomarkers and acceptable thresholds, and validate behavioral health and CNS/neurological/neuropsychological performance measures and domains of relevance to exploration class missions?
(2) HSIA-101:We need to identify the Human Systems Integration (HSI) – relevant crew health and performance outcomes, measures, and metrics, needed to characterize and mitigate risk, for future exploration missions.
(3) Sleep-101:Given each crew member will experience multiple spaceflight hazards simultaneously, we need to identify and characterize the potential additive, antagonistic, or synergistic impacts of multiple stressors (e.g., Space Radiation, Altered Gravity, Isolation, altered immune, altered sleep) on crew sleep-wake cycles and/or circadian shifting, health and/or CNS/cognitive functioning to identify any identified adverse individual or team crew health, and/or operationally-relevant performance outcomes.
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| Task Description: |
NASA missions include long periods of low workload followed by sudden high-tempo operations, a pattern that can be detrimental to situational awareness and operational readiness. An unobtrusive system to measure, assess, and predict Astronaut cognitive workload can indicate when steps should be taken to augment cognitive readiness. This system can also support testing and engineering (T&E); engineers can accurately evaluate the cognitive demands of new tools and systems, as well as how they affect task performance. In our Phase I effort, Charles River Analytics designed and demonstrated a system for Cognitive Assessment and Prediction to Promote Individualized Capability Augmentation and Reduce Decrement (CAPT PICARD). CAPT PICARD: (1) robustly and unobtrusively performs real-time synchronous data collection with a suite of sensors to provide a holistic assessment of the Astronaut; (2) extracts, fuses, and interprets the best combination of indicators of Astronaut state; (3) comprehensively predicts performance deficits, optimizing the likelihood of mission success; and (4) displays the data to support the information requirements of any user. The solicitation defined the following Phase I goals: review physiological, neurophysiological, and cognitive assessments in extreme environments and long duration missions; design an algorithm to assess workload. We did focus on these goals; however, we went beyond them to also demonstrate a functional prototype by the end of Phase I. Based on the success of this Phase I effort, we recommend a Phase II effort to refine and develop each component of CAPT PICARD, and iteratively evaluate this system in an undergraduate lab, at a T&E lab at Johnson Space Center (JSC), and in a mission-like analog environment at JSC. Successful completion of these tasks will result in a tool that can both dramatically improve Astronaut mission readiness and the design and development of tools Astronauts use to carry out mission objectives. |
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