An individual’s preparedness for a task need not always translate into productivity as a member of a team. To understand how the two are related and to develop reliable and objective predictors of team performance, Charles River Analytics is working on a Bio-Behavioral Team Dynamics Measurement System (BioTDMS). The effort is being led by Arizona State University (ASU), through the Global Security Initiative’s Center for Human, Artificial Intelligence, and Robot Teaming. The multidisciplinary team includes John Hopkins University and Georgia Institute of Technology.
BioTDMS is funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) under the OP TEMPO program (Objective Prediction of Team Effectiveness via Models of Performance Outcomes). ASU Principal Investigator Jamie Gorman states that, “BioTDMS will objectively assess team performance competencies across DoD training domains to support warfighter readiness, adaptability, and recovery. In other words, resilience.”
BioTDMS uses behavioral, physiological, and neurophysiological sensors to track biological and social patterns. Proposed biomarkers to be measured include electroencephalogram (EEG), which measures neural activity; functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), which measures brain blood oxygenation as a proxy for neural activity; eye-tracking, respiration, and cardiac information; and verbal communication; among others. To acquire this data, the team will use sensors without unwieldy wiring and attachments, to make them easy for students to adopt during training. The resultant data might be more complex to interpret, but that is part of the challenge, says Dr. Bethany Bracken, Principal Scientist at Charles River Analytics and Principal Investigator for Charles River’s BioTDMS team.
The training exercises will also yield information about the suitability of sensors for various kinds of measurements. “It will be helpful as we collect data to know which sensors may or may not be useful and which correlate better with individual and team performance,” Bracken says.
Translating biomarker data into team performance assessments poses an interesting challenge. “Looking for correlation between changes in the different physiological signals and effective team performance is going to be important,” Bracken says. There’s established precedent in evaluating synchrony in EEG signals between team members. “There’s some indication that people whose brains sync up together form teams that are more effective,” Bracken says.
The immediate goal of the multiphase project is to evaluate the effectiveness of training and determine if individuals can be good team members in executing logistical coordination tasks. The project will measure and collect data from individuals—early stages will have four individuals working together as a team—and compile the results to assess the team as a whole.
Traditional assessments of team performance record and then aggregate individual scores, which is not always a true and accurate assessment, according to Bracken. In addition, current methods are subjective, and a team member’s readiness score depends solely on the trainer’s judgment. BioTDMS offers an objective alternative that has the added bonus of offering assessments and feedback in real time, not just at the end of training.
The tool can be used to evaluate both individual team members and the effectiveness of training modules. All members consistently performing poorly at certain tasks, for example, might warrant revisions to the curricula. The tool also enables trainers to pin down where and how team members can improve. “It’s meant to give the trainers more information so that they can do their jobs better,” Bracken says.
Future phases of the project will focus on developing predictive models for team performance and assessments that can be generalized at scale. Many fields, including medicine and air traffic control, require training as part of a team. “Any situation that has teams coordinating on tasks would make a good commercialization target for BioTDMS,” Bracken says.
“We’re really excited to work with the researchers at Arizona State University who are established in the field of objective team assessment and to collect data from military personnel, the real people doing the real training,” Bracken adds.
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This material is based upon work supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) under Contract No. HR0011-24-C-0495. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of DARPA.
