Sleep,Sleepiness,Fatigue,and Vigilance in a Day and Night Inspection Task

Abstract

An experiment was performed to test the effects of fatigue factors on performance and stress in a high fidelity simulation of a fluorescent penetrant inspection of aircraft turbine engine blades. Five factors predicted to be potentially related to inspection fatigue were tested in a mixed experimental design using 80 participants recruited from the local community. Many main effects and interactions were significant in performance analyses, although the vigilance decrement was not a strong effect in this task. Particular significant effects are shown, plus an analysis of probability of detection as a function of crack size and contrast, relating this study to the literature on non-destructive inspection reliability.

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