Automatic mental heath assistant: monitoring and measuring nonverbal behavior of the crew during long-term missions

Abstract

This paper presents a method for monitoring the mental state of small isolated crews during long-term missions (such as space mission, polar expeditions, submarine crews, meteorological stations, and etc.) The research is done as a part of Automatic Mental Health Assistant (AMHA) project which aims to develop set of techniques for automatic measuring of intra- and inter- personal states in working groups. The method is focused on those aspects of psychological and sociological states that are crucial for the performance of the crew. In particular, we focus on measuring of emotional stress, initial signs of conflicts, trust, and ability to collaborate. The present research is performed in collaboration with MARS-500 experiment in which a small group of people is isolated for a long period of time. The MARS-500 experiment, in this way, provides a unique platform for study of human-human interaction. The confinement study will imitate all key peculiarities expected to be present during future missions to Mars (i.e. ultra long duration flight, need for autonomy, complicated communication with a digital communication center due to signal delay, and limited stock of expendables). The developed method is also currently tested by usage of a web-based platform.