In-flight Heart Rate Variability Monitoring

Abstract

Aircraft operation is a complex task that requires the full capacity of human attention and involves extensive information processing, consequently, it imposes significant psychological, cognitive, and physical workload on operators. Stressors encountered during flight can lead to performance degradation and may reduce flight safety. Therefore, monitoring pilots’ mental workload can provide valuable data for improving operational safety. Mental workload is a multidimensional construct influenced by numerous external and internal (human-related) factors. However, in today’s highly automated cockpit environments, conventional workload measurement protocols may face considerable limitations. Heart rate variability (HRV) has emerged as a promising tool for detecting professionals’ mental workload under real flight conditions. The application of HRV measurement to assess operator workload in complex environments opens up numerous future opportunities. Data generated through this method can be used to characterize the stress response and recovery capacity of the autonomic nervous system. Fatigue, for instance, is a subjective sensation that manifests at different rates and intensities across individuals, which makes its objective assessment difficult challenging. Heart rate variability represents a high-quality biomarker for evaluating fatigue status and may contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of fatigue-related processes.