Mental Fatigue Measurement using EEG While Performing General Mechanical Assembly Task

In recent years, interest in fatigue detection technologies has been increased so that fatigue related accidents can be prevented. There are number of mental fatigue measurement methods, which can be performance, perceptual or electrophysiological based. Among them, Electroencephalogram (EEG) might be the most predictive and reliable indicator of mental fatigue. The aim of this paper is to evaluate mental fatigue while performing the general mechanical assembly task as till date most of the EEG studies have been done where workers are made to perform jobs involving mental work. Methodology of the study was to put four operators on exhaustive and actual two sessions per person, with each session of four hours. While performing mechanical assembly task EEG raw data was acquired on BIOPAC MP150 system and later on analysis on BIOPAC acknowledge 4.3 software was carried out. The results indicate that the subjects alertness level declines greatly and the excitement level of brain decreases after the completion of task. In this study, with the help of ratio indices (α+θ)/β and β/α, we were able to find out whether the mental fatigue has occurred or not.