Graduate School of Informatics /Information Systems

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science Murat Vural will defend his thesis.

Title: "ONLINE DETECTION OF PILOT WORKLOAD BY USING FNIR SENSORS." 

Date: 14th March 2018

Time: 16:30 AM

Place: A-212

Thesis Abstract :

Measuring mental workload of pilots and evaluating such measurements are important concerns in the aviation domain that requires high safety critical precautions. However, obtaining valid online measures without reducing operational capabilities of pilots remains to be an active area of research in human factors and aviation psychology. The aim of this thesis is to develop online measures for mental workload of pilots and establish a ground for new studies which will use these measurements to take precautions for safety. Since fNIR (Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy) technology has been successfully employed in recent human factors studies and fNIR sensors have an ergonomic design that minimizes the discomfort of pilots as compared to other brain imaging methods, fNIR optical brain imaging technology will be employed in this thesis study. Firstly, changes in the mental workload of pilots will be studied offline in well-defined test scenarios in order to devise physiological patterns and algorithms for mental workload assessment. Afterwards, a software that can make online mental workload assessment by using these algorithms will be developed and tested.