THE FUTURE OF WEARABLE TECH


Department of Agriculture’s Belts- ville, MD, Human Nutrition Research Center, USARIEM’s Dr. Mark Buller tested the use of RT-PSM and novel algorithms to provide continuous pac- ing guidance to individuals who were tasked with completing a five-mile run within one hour under thermally chal- lenging conditions. Tey were to pace themselves to complete the mission on time but not overheat, and to arrive as cool and physically capable as possible.


+


HOT DOG DATA A military working dog wears RT-PSM chest sen- sors and a collar-worn acoustic sensor to detect panting frequency. A rising core temperature in a dog is not, by itself, a reliable predictor of impending heat injury, as with humans, and the susceptibility to performance degradation in the heat may be quite different between sweating humans and panting dogs. (Photo by Anthony Karis, USARIEM)


low thermal work strains and could be further challenged, wanted to use the information to push trainees harder than they would have without the monitoring. Tis demonstrates the kind of innovation that comes from the end users themselves during iterative field testing,


Te pacing feedback supplied by Buller significantly improved their performance in comparison to a separate trial in which each individual used his or her own pac- ing strategy.


Tis approach could be used to train optimal movement strategies and guide redistribution of


An alternate approach to directly moni- toring individual physiological responses is to use rational mathematical models to predict Soldier limits. Well-validated USARIEM thermal models can pro- vide mission planning guidance and generalized predictions but are not intended for real-time use and will not precisely predict individual responses. A special exception is the USARIEM Prob- ability of Survival Decision Aid used by U.S. Coast Guard Search and Rescue (https://www.uscg.mil/announcements/ ALCOAST/325-10_alcoast.txt).


the workload among


individuals in a team. Te route planning and pacing algorithms are also excellent candidates for integration into the U.S. Army Geospatial Center route-planning tools under development.


Robert A. Heinlein captured the imagi- nation of many when he described a wearable physiological status moni- tor on every soldier in his sci-fi novel


suggest-


ing, in this case, a “precision medicine” application of RT-PSM to more effec- tively train each individual according to his or her current level of fitness and acclimatization.


A MORE CAPABLE SOLDIER Information from RT-PSM can also be used in mission planning and route finding. In collaboration with the U.S.


72 Army AL&T Magazine January-March 2016


“Starship Troopers.” Today, that is as quaint as the old Tom Swift books that imagined a day when spaceships might land on the moon. Although the cur- rent, affordable wrist-worn technologies have already far surpassed Heinlein’s vision, the Army’s interest centers on chest-based sensors. Current wrist- and arm-based sensors are power-hungry, largely proprietary and prone to motion artifacts;


use militarily unacceptable


modes of wireless communication; and cannot provide information obtained from the chest, such as respiration rates and body position.


Key targets beyond thermal-work strain include assessments of hydration state, readiness and alertness, and musculoskel- etal fatigue and strain. Tese may include unobtrusive sensors to monitor water con- sumption and loss; goggles that monitor eye responses; communication systems that also measure voice changes, speech content and breath chemistry; skin sen- sors that assess stress and alertness; and sensors to monitor extremity tempera- tures to protect and sustain performance in cold weather. Simple helmet or boot sensors could detect ground impact forces and lower extremity patterns of movement that can provide useful infor- mation about impending injury, fatigue and even behavioral changes.


CONCLUSION USARIEM and Lincoln Laboratory have a longer- range plan to combine physi- ological monitoring with outward-looking detectors to trigger threat alarms that allow Soldiers to don protective ensembles. Even military working dogs may ben- efit from current work to develop thermal work-strain monitors based on collar- worn acoustic sensor


systems analyzing


panting patterns. Miniature, possibly implantable, body-heat powered sensors will be even better and are around the cor- ner, leveraged in part by Small Business


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