Royal Netherlands Aerospace Centre - NLR
Maykel van Miltenburg earned his Master’s degree in Applied Cognitive Psychology (MSc) in 2014 and is an R&D Engineer within NLR's department of Safety and Human Performance. He participated in many of the recent NLR human-in-the-loop studies in the military domain. His expertise lies on measurement tools such as rating scales and a combination of (psycho)physiological measurements such as electroencephalography, functional near-infrared spectroscopy, electrocardiography and eye-tracking. Currently, he is developing a method to sense and assess the cognitive load of the operator consisting of three different layers: 1) simple rules and metrics including a multimodal approach in which different response systems (i.e. brain and heart metrics) are analyzed in combination, 2) more complex criteria by using different classifiers and 3) deep learning models. The ambition is to deliver an “optimum load” model which – automatically and in real-time – adapts the difficulty of computer generated forces (CGFs) during a simulator session. So, when the CGFs appear to be too challenging or too easy, then the difficulty will be adjusted accordingly in real-time. As a result of this adaptive automation, the CGFs will behave and act within the flow channel of the individual.