Quantification of the normal and pathological human behavior – QUANTICO

The loss of autonomy is a burning issue in most occidental countries, but also in China for instance, particularly vulnerable after decades of a single-child policy. In France, the idea of creating a fifth risk devoted to the loss of autonomy for the national social protection was put in a lax project in 2007. The 2008 crisis tackled it, but it is regaining strength as the situation keeps developing and the population aging. Funding the dependency was the main topic again in Health commissions from both chambers of Parliament last year. In parallel, the notion of mental load is spreading with various sources, including the more and more complex interfaces people have to deal with at work, at home, and almost constantly. Both topics have much in common: they rely on the sensorymotor system, their understanding requires large amount of heterogeneous - and sensitive personal - data from various inputs and fields, and a proper aggregation and fusion of these data to extract the build relevant information.
The proposed project address those topics by proposing ways to assess and quantify the robustness/frailty of people and better understand the cognitive load associate to complex interfaces with similar and complementary tools. The longitudinal follow-up of the person will allow the sketch for each and every one an individualized digital twin. This one could be used to prescribe preventive actions to delay, or reverse while it is still time, the entry in frailty which leads to the loss of autonomy. Such a study deals with elderly people obviously, but also with all people who can fall into frailty while entering a depression, a trauma, a burn-out, a surgical operation, an over-training, or are subject to a high mental load...
Although they have improved with technology and engineers try and design them to facilitate pilots’ work, modern-aircraft cockpits remain extremely complex and generate a significant workload during particular phases such as take-off and landing, not to mention when a problem arises during the flight (Paris-Rio AF447, July 2009). Pilot training has evolved a lot over time and now focuses on making sure training outcome is actually leading to an efficient improvement of safety of flight that is not only based on repeated maneuvers. The proposed project will help define the profiles of pilot trainees and help develop and assess crew performance across the range of necessary defined competencies so that training instructors tackle the root causes of behaviors that might lead to a potentially dangerous situation.
According to the INRS (Institut National de Recherche et de Sécurité), the social cost of professional stress is estimated between 2 and 3 billion Euros per year, while the social protection spends 23 billion Euros per year to cover dependency costs. The team carrying this proposal has a long lasting and successful experience in capturing adequate physiological features and aggregating heterogeneous data, having for instance designed the training robot simulating the ruck used for training purposes by our National Rubgy Team. This team has been collaborating for many years on the sensorymotricity with the two industrial partners, Engie and Thalès, cofinancing this chair. They have the industrial and commercial network to convert the research progress into products used in our daily lives.