Fatigue Avoidance Scheduling Tool

Fatigue is a major human factors issue in aviation safety. The Fatigue Avoidance Scheduling Tool (FAST) was developed by the United States Air Force in 2000–2001 to address the problem of aircrew fatigue in aircrew flight scheduling. FAST is a Windows program that allows scientists, planners and schedulers to quantify the effects of various work-rest schedules on human performance. It allows work and sleep data entry in graphic, symbolic (grid) and text formats. The graphic input-output display shows cognitive performance effectiveness (y axis) as a function of time (x axis). An upper, green area on the graph ends at the time for normal sleep, 90% effectiveness. The goal of the planner or scheduler is to keep performance effectiveness at or above 90% by manipulating the timing and lengths of work and rest periods. A work schedule is entered as red bands on the time line. Sleep periods are entered as blue bands across the time line, below the red bands.

The calculated performance effectiveness represents composite human performance on a number of cognitive tasks, scaled from zero to 100%. The oscillating line in the graph represents expected group average performance on these tasks as determined by time of day, circadian rhythm, time spent awake, and amount of sleep, and various confidence limits around the average may be displayed. The graphic display may be cut and pasted into reports and briefing slides. Cognitive effectiveness estimates for work periods of any length may also be cut and pasted in tabular format.

FAST was developed under Phase 1 and 2 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract awards from the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Human Effectiveness Directorate, to NTI, Inc., (Dr. Douglas R. Eddy, Principal Investigator) with Science Applications International Corporation as a subcontractor (Dr. Steven R. Hursh, Modeler). Fatigue predictions in FAST are derived from the Sleep, Activity, Fatigue, and Task Effectiveness (SAFTE) simulation invented by Dr. Hursh, currently the President of the Institutes for Behavior Resources and Adjunct Professor of Behavioral Biology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

...
Wikipedia