QUANTUM APPLIED SCIENCE & RESEARCH INC — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: DHA222-001

Description

Modern military aircraft have increased in system complexity and technical capabilities to the point that they are taxing the cognitive limits of their human operators. This presents a safety risk and can compromise mission outcomes. The DOD has implemented mitigations to reduce the incidence of Physiological Events (PE),  but a recent surge in fatal military aircraft accidents is renewing the military’s dedication to curb the underlying factors.   There is a negative impact on mission performance and an increased risk of accidents associated with sleep deprivation, extended time on intense attention demanding tasks, physical exertion, acute or chronic stress, strong and extended acceleration, as well as hypoxia. The high risk of human error caused by such human factors is one of the most challenging problems facing the military, creating a need to monitor cognitive fatigue in personnel to enable real-time mitigations.  The Defense Health Agency is soliciting the development of a helmet integrated dry electrode electroencephalography (EEG) system to enable such monitoring of aircrew during flights, and in response, QUASAR is proposing to develop a Dry Electrode Flight helmet Integrated Eeg System (DEFIES), incorporating the company’s dry electrodes into a military flight helmet.