Physiological and cognitive real-time stress analysis as a basis for
optimised human-machine teaming and safe decision processes for military
forces
Authors: Almer Alexander , Weber Anna , Haid Florian , Tschuden Julia , Paletta Lucas , Schneeberger Michael , Wallner Dietmar , Glanz Paul , Klöckl Philip , Eder Dominik , Bauer Gerald , Kühr Oliver , Hölzl Thomas 
Published: July 2023

Introduction In recent decades, the development of autonomous
cyber-physical systems for a wide range of tasks has been the focus of
research activities for military organisations. Modern security forces can
be seen as socio-technical systems. Only an integrated approach, in which
people, organisation and technology are viewed as interlocking elements,
enables the optimisation of the overall system. Soldiers are still at the
center of deployed sociotechnical systems despite major innovations in the
field of autonomous systems and artificial intelligence (Swiss, 2020). An
efficient and coordinated interaction in a task force and an optimised
human-machine teaming are essential prerequisites for a successful operation
and thus also for increasing the safety of the soldiers in critical
operational situations. This requires, on the one hand, optimal HMI
development, but also, on the other hand, information about the mental and
physical state of the soldier to provide improved decision processes and
operational performance. Information on a common operational picture and the
status of the technical systems used is usually available, but not the
psychophysical situation of the soldier. Therefore extensive development
projects have been launched for solutions of psycho-physiological
monitoring, with new possibilities arising from innovative developments in
the field of bio-sensor technology. The aim is to optimise human performance
in the field and the interaction between man and machine with highly
sophisticated mission equipment. An important success factor in complex
operations is the quality of the necessary decisions (decision intelligence)
in time-critical security situations, whereby the current psychophysical
stress state of the person is a decisive factor. Therefore, an ongoing
challenge for the military task forces is managing personnel to optimise and
sustain performance, improve security while also ensuring health and
wellbeing. In the course of intensive training and exercises as well as in
real operational scenarios, soldiers often suffer physiological and
psychological borderline stresses and injuries during physical and
combat-related training. In this context efficient solutions for the
physiological monitoring of soldiers based on the integration of innovative
biosensor technology and specific load models considering load
characteristics of different military forces will enable a targeted
support.Motivation and Background The challenging military work tasks are
often associated with a high degree of physical stress and require a high
level of mental performance and concentration. Reduced concentration and
reaction cause delayed or possibly even wrong decisions, which can have
critical consequences. In this context a real-time system for physiological
status monitoring (RT-PSM) offers new opportunities for military purpose
with individual assessment of soldiers' performance limits. However, most
commercially available health and performance sport systems do not meet the
relevant military requirements. They typically lack validated methods and
algorithms to derive essential information in real time and are not designed
to be integrated into soldier's technological ecology (Friedl, 2018). Based
on the specific requirements and the experience of the Austrian Armed
Forces, an RT-PSM was developed as part of the VitalMonitor project and
geared to the working conditions and multifactorial stress situations of
CBRN defence personnel and light infantry forces. The main objectives were
to analyze the individual stress in deployment scenarios and to achieve a
targeted improvement in the individual performance level through
personalized adaptive training concepts and thus to optimize the health and
fitness of the individual soldier. The research project VitalMonitor
therefore focuses on the development of a (I) real-time monitoring system,
which analyses changes in physiological parameters from heart rate, heart
rate variability, skin conductance, core body temperature, etc., (II)
development of a stress model considering load characteristics of different
military forces, (III) communication solution for a real-time data transfer,
(IV) data management and interactive real-time visualization module to
support decision processes for mission commanders to determine optimal
work-rest-cycles preventing physical overstraining in trainings and missions
and (V) an expert interface to visualize sensor data streams (low-level
data) together with model-based analysis results (high-level data) in a
graphical interface as a basis for model development, verification and
optimization.This paper gives an overview of the main developments and
results implemented and achieved within the VitalMonitor project. In the
following, wearable sensors and their evaluation, the development of a
specific load model, the real-time visualization modules and finally a
conclusion and outlook will be presented.