Relationship Among Fatigue, Psychomotor Vigilance and Physiological Index in a Flight Simulation Context

Abstract

Monitoring pilot’s fatigue status timely is very important for ensuring flight safety. It has been proved that physiological indexes can effectively reflect the fatigue state, but it is not convenient for pilots to measure the fatigue state in real time due to the obstacles of wearing and testing methods. The improved PVT (Psychomotor Vigilance Task) software based on mobile phone was developed out and applied to measure the vigilance level in a simulated flight task. The PVT and physiological index data were collected and analyzed. The experiment results showed that parameters of psychomotor vigilance task were correlated with LF/HF, A++ and B−−. The findings in this study could be used to develop applicable fatigue monitoring tool for pilots and airlines, and provide data support for reasonable arrangement of personnel work and prevention of fatigue risk.