Wearable Technology Adaptation to Aviation Cabin Crew’s Fatigue Assessments

Abstract

Aviation industry is one of the safest transport systems available for global travel and transportation. With the increase in commercial air travel, airlines require extra cabin crews. Aviation industry’s cabin crew members are working overtime, in shifts, long working hours and differences of time-sones during long distance flights. The shift system causes fatigue for cabin crews. One of the most important factors in the reduction of mental and physical performance ability of the cabin crew is related to individuals sleep and wakefulness. Operational data is normally collected to estimate the safety risks associated with fitness and performance. The sleep and wakefulness assessment data collection methods and metrics vary among airlines. It is difficult to collect data in shift work due to the low flexibility in terms of experimental control and measurement strategies. Daily sleep data collection uses subjective questionnaire surveys and the use of available assistive technology such as wearables are not heard of. This research investigates the reliability between subjective and objective measurements employed during sleep and fatigue data collection and measurements. It further examines whether those measurements can be improved by the use of wearable devices to measure sleep and a wakefulness to support a cabin crew member’s fit to fly assessments. The research methodology consist of the exploration of related works, evaluation of 3 commercial airlines and their fatigue risk assessment methods and tools to identify the gap in the objective sleep and wakefulness measurement approaches in practice, and the evaluation an assessment of wearable technology adaptation to sleep and wakefulness measurements of aviation fatigue risk assessment models.