Estimating Three Key Parameters from Measurements in Experiments of Heat Induced Flight

Abstract

We study the problem of heat-induced flight action when a subject is exposed to a millimeter wave beam. There are three key parameters in the model: the nociceptor activation temperature, the subjective threshold for flight initiation, and the human reaction time. We explore mathematical formulations for inferring the three parameters from data measured in exposure tests using the method of limit. We find that the simultaneous inference of the three parameters depends on the experimental design in the sequence of exposure tests. When the beam power density and beam radius of exposure tests span a rectangular region along its two diagonal directions, the three parameters are robustly estimated. Future experiments should consider this pattern of beam power density and beam radius when designing exposure tests. In the case of fluctuating subjective threshold, the medians of three parameters are still reliably estimated when the relative uncertainty in subjective threshold is small or moderate.