NOU SYSTEMS INC — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: AF221-0018

Description

Fatigue and stress are a pervasive problem during high-performance flight environments and multi-day operations. Biosensors have demonstrated feasibility of measuring biochemical analytes and physiological parameters enabling the detection of key markers indicative of performance, fatigue, and stress. In anticipation of future warfare, interventions that allow Airmen, Guardians, drone pilots, and warfighters to perform at high levels over multi-day missions with minimal logistics support would be game-changing. Solving the technical, transitional, and regulatory challenges needed to address this technological gap requires an interdisciplinary research team with the capacity to work across physical, digital, biological, and legal boundaries whilst collaborating seamlessly with end-users: the warfighters. To address this critical unmet need nou Systems Inc. (nSI) has partnered with medical state-of-the-art sensor developers, to create a multimodal sensor platform capable of providing rapid and continuous personalized performance monitoring and augmentation.  The proposed end-to-end solution expands upon existing TRL 4 technology (with all components at TRL 5 or higher): Argos⸺a sophisticated, highly miniaturized platform equipped with ultra-low-power sensing, computation, wireless communication, and drug delivery capabilities. Through this effort we will merge Argos with cutting-edge biomarker monitoring technology, and integrate advanced decision-making algorithms into existing microprocessors, to form a complete sense, assess, and augment system.  Phase I efforts will include a thorough literature review and laboratory demonstrations to refine our approach. During Phase II, we plan to conduct large animal studies, advancing the technology towards regulatory approval and transition. Phase III will validate the technology in clinical studies for real-time assessment and enhancement of human performance.