You have been hired as a human factors consultant for an MQ-1B Medium Altitude, Long Endurance (MALE) UAS squadron of the United States Air Force (USAF). This squadron conducts missions 24/7, 365 days a year providing armed, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) to ground forces in a conflict zone. In order to accomplish this mission, the UAS crews have been separated into 4 teams and put onto a continuous shift work schedule of 6 days on, 2 days off. The Squadron Commander is concerned because the UAS crews have been reporting extreme fatigue while conducting operations, and complained of inadequate sleep due to their current shift schedule. It is your job to analyze the current shift and the number of days on and off per week, and, based upon your research, design the schedule that you think will allow the squadron to optimize operations, while improving the fatigue issues that the crews are reporting.

Stress and Fatigue Among UAS Crews

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

ASCI 638 Human Factors in Unmanned Aerospace Systems

April 20, 2017

Stress and fatigue are important human factors for crews operating unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). In many military operations, UAS often maneuver over the battlefield 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The increased acquisition of UAS to fill their high demand use in combat has made it difficult for United States Air Force (USAF) leadership to maintain sufficient manning levels for operators of these systems. Due to the high-demand low-density nature of the associated UAS and their crews, several studies have concluded that the primary factor contributing to stress and fatigue is long work weeks of 50+ hours (Armour & Ross, 2017; Tvaryanas, Platte, Swigart, Colebank, & Miller, 2008; Ouma, Chappelle, & Salinas, 2011).

To combat this stress and fatigue, as a consultant, I would suggest a multifaceted approach. The circadian rhythm of crews would need to be considered to help remedy stress and fatigue. As part of the approach to address circadian rhythm issues, increasing the ambient lighting within the ground control stations (GCSs) would be one approach as suggested by Tvaryanas et al. (2008, p24). Along these lines, training on circadian rhythms and the importance of sleep quality, not just duration, along with exercise and nutrition may improve stress and fatigue problems among the UAS crews.

Another approach at solving the stress and fatigue issue for these UAS crews would involve a new shift schedule. There are various shift schedules possible to cover a 24 hour a day, 7-day work week. However, in this case the limiting factor of having only four crews presents a challenge. Although research has shown that frequent changes in work schedules do not solve the stress and fatigue issues, it can improve conditions (Tvaryanas et al., 2008).

Despite the evidence of long work weeks as a leading factor for stress and fatigue in UAS crews (Armour & Ross, 2017; Chappelle, Salinas, & McDonald, 2011; Ouma, Chappelle, & Salinas, 2011; Tvaryanas et al., 2008), I would suggest longer shifts for a change. For this particular group of UAS crews, I would suggest a DuPont 12-hour rotating shift schedule (Business Management Systems, 2017) with an added 30 minutes for shift turnovers. This type of shift schedule is popular among manufacturing and law enforcement fields which perform 24/7 operations.

Although the shifts themselves are longer in such a schedule, personnel work an average of 42 hours per week with more days off.  When compared to the current schedule, these additional days off provide more opportunities for crews to recover from sleep debt/deficit which is a contributing factor to shift-work disorder (Culpepper, 2010).  Some additional benefits of this schedule include working a maximum of 4 days in a row, a week off every 4 weeks, and a 30% reduction in the commute to work (Robinson, 1978). This schedule also benefits from a slow rotation between day and night shifts (Business Management Systems, 2017) which addresses a primary concern of operational stressors in frequent schedule changes found in the aforementioned studies.

Although this proposed work schedule may improve stress and fatigue levels in crew members, it should only be considered a temporary fix, not a solution. Inadequate manning levels must be addressed to truly attempt a solution to stress and fatigue levels in UAS crews (Tvaryanas et al., 2008; Armour & Ross, 2017). Until an increase in the ratio of manning per UAS occurs, these crews will likely continue to endure extended hours along with increased stress and fatigue levels.

 References

Armour, C., & Ross, J. (2017). The health and well-being of military drone operators and intelligence analysts: A systematic review. Military Psychology, 29(2), 83-98. doi:  10.1037/mil0000149

Business Management Systems. (2017). DuPont shift schedule: 24/7 shift coverage. Retrieved from http://www.bmscentral.com/learn-employee-scheduling/dupont-shift-schedule/

Chappelle, W., Salinas, A., & McDonald, K. (2011). Psychological health screening of remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) operators and supporting units (Report No. RTO-MP-HFM-205). Wright Patterson AFB, OH: School of Aerospace Medicine.

Culpepper, L. (2010). Shift-work disorder. The Journal of Family Practice, 59(1), S1-S11. Retrieved from http://www.mdedge.com/jfponline/article/76708/mens-health/shift-work-disorder/pdf

Ouma, J. A., Chappelle, W. L., & Salinas, A. (2011). Facets of occupational burnout among US Air Force active duty and National Guard/reserve MQ-1 predator and MQ-9 reaper operators (Report No. AFRL-SA-WP-TR-2011-0003). Wright Patterson AFB, OH: School of Aerospace Medicine.

Robinson, D. (1978). DuPont's 12-hour shift experiment turns up surprising benefits. Personnel Journal, 57(5), 234. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/docview/219778477?accountid=27203

Tvaryanas, A. P., Platte, W., Swigart, C. Colebank, J., & Miller, N. L., (2008). A resurvey of shift work-related fatigue in MQ-1 Predator unmanned aircraft system crewmembers (Report No. NPS-OR-08-001). Monterey, CA: Naval Postgraduate School.