Abstract
Maintaining alertness has always been a critical problem for personnel on shift work supporting around the clock operations. Recent trends involving reduced staffing and advanced electronic systems within protracted and continuous nightly operations have critically increased the need to diagnose and predict operator fatigue and its consequences. This paper describes an evaluation of a mathematical fatigue algorithm used to estimate fatigue as a result of extended duty days and fragmented or reduced sleep. A study is described comparing shift schedules during two weeks of maritime activity that demonstrates the algorithm's predictive capability. The study also provides the theoretical foundation for applying fatigue related action and reaction in artificial and simulated human agents in order to enhance military intelligence, mission planning, training, and rehearsal for a wide range of human operations.
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