Assessment of the mental workload of trainee pilots of remotely operated aircraft using functional near-infrared spectroscopy
DOI: 10.1186/s12883-022-02683-5
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Summary
This study addresses the limited understanding of mental workload in operators of remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), such as drones, which impose high cognitive demands despite reduced physical effort. The researchers aimed to establish a digital assessment system using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure hemodynamic parameters and compare mental workload across trainee pilots, experienced pilots, and experienced drivers. The study involved 41 trainee pilots, 45 experienced pilots, and 68 experienced drivers. Participants performed flight tasks in a simulation environment over five consecutive days. fNIRS was used to monitor changes in oxyhemoglobin, deoxyhemoglobin, and total hemoglobin concentrations in the prefrontal cortex. Flight performance was measured by task completion time, and subjective mental workload was assessed using the NASA Task Load Index. Results indicated that training significantly reduced mental workload markers. In trainee pilots, the duration of peak oxyhemoglobin concentration decreased from day 1 to day 5 in both left and right brain hemispheres. By day 5, trainee performance times and hemodynamic responses approached those of experienced pilots. Experienced drivers also showed reductions in hemodynamic peaks and task durations over the five days, eventually performing faster than experienced pilots on day 5. Specifically, the median duration of peak oxyhemoglobin in experienced pilots was 147.13 s (left) and 180.74 s (right), while trainees on day 5 showed 184.42 s (left) and 160.30 s (right). Correlation analyses revealed that flight performance was significantly associated with mean and peak oxyhemoglobin concentrations and the duration of peak hemoglobin responses. Mental workload scores correlated strongly with temporal demand, effort, and task duration. The findings suggest that peak oxyhemoglobin duration serves as a valid surrogate marker for mental workload in ROV operators. The study demonstrates that navigation training effectively reduces cognitive load, as evidenced by declining hemodynamic peaks and improved flight efficiency. These results support the development of simplified schemes for optimizing pilot training and performance monitoring based on real-time fNIRS data, potentially enhancing safety and reducing human error in remote aircraft operations.
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| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | Crossref | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| archive | success | canonical_url | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 3 | 2026-08-10 |
| clean | success | clean | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| chunk | success | chunk | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| embed | success | embed | Qwen/Qwen3-Embedding-8B | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-nvidia | summ-v5 | 2 | 2026-08-10 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 11 | 2026-08-11 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 2 | 2026-08-10 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-nvidia on 2026-08-10; verification: verified.
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- Empirical Findings: physiological data