Swaths of white powder drape the curves of Alaska’s frozen expanse, and cold winds whip across the ice-encrusted mountains as the temperatures slowly creeped up from subfreezing levels.
And yet within this winter wonderland, research teams from around the world use it for scientific research opportunities at U.S. Northern Command’s Arctic Edge 2024 in Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, earlier this year.
“This is the place where curious minds unite to propel humanity forward,” said Army Capt. Tyrone Ceaser, Senior Data Scientist and Physiologist in the Data and Decisions System program at the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine.
Arctic Edge is an annual defense exercise for USNORTHCOM emphasizing Joint Force operations in an extreme cold weather and high latitude environment. It also provides an opportunity to test next generation Army preparedness solutions from the U.S Army Medical Research and Development Commands. As one of the five capabilities evaluated within required medical challenges, USARIEM, the Naval Health Research Center and MIT carried out a joint physiological monitoring experiment.
"Our mission within the Warfighter Performance Department at the Naval Health Research Center is to improve the health, readiness and performance of our Service Members,” said Dr. Doug Jones, Research Physiologist at NHRC and co-principal investigator of the physiological monitoring experiment. “Collaborating research with USARIEM during Arctic Edge allows us to directly support this mission by evaluating novel technology that could promote early detection of cold-weather injuries.”
Next-Level Threads in Snowy Trials
A Warfighter, intent on their mission, can often be fighting more than just the enemy. The extreme cold can degrade performance, readiness and overall health; but instead of waiting for cold-weather injuries to occur, a new temperature-sensing technology has the potential to provide information early and put the Warfighter first.
The technology is a prototype of imperceptible fibers embedded in military cold-weather clothing designed to assess the physiological responses of Warfighters. The winter base layers, gloves and socks have specialized fibers integrated into the fabric and used to monitor temperature of the fingers and toes, body heat loss and the “temperature differentials” during critical operational tasks such as transporting casualties and treating patients.
Oftentimes when exercising in the cold, we may move our bodies more to get warmer, but this may trigger the body to sweat, which pulls heat away from the body. A similar result will happen when combat boots are wet from trudging in the snow. If the military can use temperature-sensing technology incorporated into Warfighter cold-weather clothing, this could assist with early detection of such risks to the health and safety of the Warfighter.
“The whole idea of this technology and collaboration at Arctic Edge is to get real-time data and transform decision making and how we operate on a large scale,” said Ceaser, who supported the execution of the experiment. “It’s a decision-making sensor.”
As part of the technology, the fibers have accelerometers, which can measure movement and shivering. This component can help provide more information about the patient to medics and corpsmen operating in the field, says Jones. For example, the fibers can detect body heat loss, and when combined with a cessation of shivering, could be an important consideration for progression into more severe hypothermia.
Commercial-off-the-shelf technologies such as temperature sensors and heart rate monitors are helpful in providing physiological data on a Warfighter but can be inconvenient to wear or provide real-time feedback on the wearer.
As part of the experiment, the temperature-sensing fibers were compared for accuracy against those traditional physiological monitoring sensors. The heart rate monitors were worn on the chest and the temperature sensors were affixed on the skin on hands, feet, thighs, chests and shoulders. The experimental fabrics also had temperature sensors in these same areas.
“Once the commercial technology and this newer technology are compared, we can determine if this next-generation technology is to be our ally in the cold—an ally forged by science,” Ceaser said.
On March 6, the team awoke at 5:00 a.m. They donned their snow pants and heavy jackets, gathered research equipment and gear, and made their way up to Camp Madbull on the joint Alaskan base for experimentation day. Upon issuing the custom-designed cold-weather base layers, socks and gloves to the nearly 30 participating Warfighters, recorded the height and weight of the participants, and as part of their data collection made sure that a core temperature sensor was ingested the night before by participants to obtain accurate measurements of core temperature during the cold-weather training exercise.
Once the sun was in the sky, the participants began their cold-weather casualty evacuation training exercise, where they used patient packaging and transport systems. The participants transported simulated “wounded” patients through knee-high snow for 400 yards using the transport systems and then performed simulated treatment on “patients.” The training exercise included teams of six participants including: one medic, one patient and four litter bearers perform these training exercises across multiple iterations. The researchers received real-time physiological data on these participants across a span of four hours.
Despite the immediate results, the temperature-sensing wearable technology is a prototype and is currently in analysis for how valid and effective the physiological monitoring system is.
Embedding More Than Just Sensors: Change
The goal of the temperature sensing technology is to provide real-time feedback regarding peripheral temperatures – and thereby prevent dangers like frostbite before they start.
“The technology evaluated during Arctic Edge 2024 opens new possibilities for the operational medicine community through continued development of tools that provide real-time feedback to aid decision making for those attempting to prevent and manage cold-weather injuries,” Jones said.
Unexpected, but helpful information that may be provided by technology such as this includes how a slightly larger or smaller clothing items from shoes to gloves can influence how quickly Warfighters are vulnerable to the cold. For example, a slightly smaller combat boot on a Soldier could increase their susceptibility to cold-weather injuries due to the lack of blood circulation.
“It is critical to assess proactive, rather than reactive, mitigation strategies to the cold out in the field,” added Dr. Tim Dunn, Cognitive Scientist at NHRC and co-principal investigator of the physiological monitoring experiment.
Early warning monitoring systems like this one could lead to lifesaving and limb-saving interventions. Whether it be optimizing new equipment to changing out a Service Member’s gloves or socks before their periphery becomes dangerously cold – by capturing this knowledge during the annual defense exercise, leaders can optimize their troops during cold-weather trauma scenarios.
“USARIEM is grateful to have supported this experiment that tests this potential life-saving technology,” Ceaser said.
USARIEM is a subordinate command of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command under the Army Futures Command. USARIEM is internationally recognized as the DOD's premier laboratory for Warfighter health and performance research and focuses on environmental medicine, physiology, physical and cognitive performance, and nutrition research. Located at the Natick Soldier Systems Center in Natick, Massachusetts, USARIEM's mission is to research and deliver solutions to enhance Warfighter health, performance and lethality in all environments.
| Date Taken: | 12.17.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 12.17.2024 17:00 |
| Story ID: | 487744 |
| Location: | ANCHORAGE, ALASKA, US |
| Web Views: | 44 |
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This work, East Coast to West Coast collaboration on temperature sensing technology prototype for Warfighters, by Maddi Langweil, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
