{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,5]],"date-time":"2026-10-05T11:52:12Z","timestamp":1791201132987,"version":"4.2.0"},"reference-count":54,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"19","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,3]],"date-time":"2026-10-03T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1790985600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Recognizing psychophysiological arousal and strain from wearable sensors extends affective computing beyond discrete-emotion classification. Vigilance decrement during air traffic control (ATC) shifts illustrates this: the psychomotor vigilance task (PVT) cannot be administered while a controller is working. We develop and evaluate a wearable, label-free Vigilance\/Strain Risk Index (F-VRI) for ATC operators, fusing five physiological signals via entropy-weighted fuzzy TOPSIS. The index was assessed in two samples: 38 controllers measured pre\/post shift (preliminary, pilot-level evidence) and 13 trainees pre\/post across simulator sessions (confirmatory validation). Compared with PVT, the fused index detected the pre\/post change more reliably at the group level (simulator: p = 0.004 vs. p = 0.379) and at the individual level (68\u201380% directional concordance vs. 33\u201355% for PVT, at or below chance). Compared with five supervised machine learning baselines, the fuzzy index was the only method to remain significant under cross-domain transfer (both p &lt; 0.05), while every supervised model failed in at least one direction. An exploratory extension revealed a weighting pathology in which static covariates absorbed disproportionate model weight, which led us to a two-layer state\/trait architecture. These results support fuzzy MCDM as an interpretable sensor-fusion framework for psychophysiological state monitoring under uncertainty, with continuous, streaming deployment remaining a prospective extension requiring further validation; the field-cohort effect (p = 0.084) remains at the pilot level.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s26196272","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,5]],"date-time":"2026-10-05T10:57:46Z","timestamp":1791197866000},"page":"6272","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Wearable Sensor Fusion for Psychophysiological Arousal Recognition in Air Traffic Control: A Fuzzy MCDM Approach"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"26","author":[{"given":"Manal","family":"Aich","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Systems and Data Engineering Team, National School of Applied Sciences-Tangier, Abdelmalek Essaadi University, T\u00e9touan 93000, Morocco"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"formal-analysis","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"validation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"data-curation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"visualization","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0003-9716-8810","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jamal El","family":"Aoufi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Air Traffic Control, Mohammed VI International Academy of Civil Aviation, Nouaceur 27000, Morocco"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"validation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"data-curation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"visualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"supervision","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"project-administration","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1628-8179","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ahmed","family":"Moussa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Systems and Data Engineering Team, National School of Applied Sciences-Tangier, Abdelmalek Essaadi University, T\u00e9touan 93000, Morocco"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"validation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"supervision","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"visualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"data-curation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"project-administration","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,3]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"6","DOI":"10.1080\/17470214808416738","article-title":"The breakdown of vigilance during prolonged visual search","volume":"1","author":"Mackworth","year":"1948","journal-title":"Q. 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