  Seamless human robot interaction (HRI) and cooperative human-robot (HR)
teaming critically rely upon accurate and timely human mental workload (MW)
models. Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) suggests representative physical
environments produce representative mental processes; physical environment
fidelity corresponds with improved modeling accuracy. Virtual Reality (VR)
systems provide immersive environments capable of replicating complicated
scenarios, particularly those associated with high-risk, high-stress scenarios.
Passive biosignal modeling shows promise as a noninvasive method of MW
modeling. However, VR systems rarely include multimodal psychophysiological
feedback or capitalize on biosignal data for online MW modeling. Here, we
develop a novel VR simulation pipeline, inspired by the NASA Multi-Attribute
Task Battery II (MATB-II) task architecture, capable of synchronous collection
of objective performance, subjective performance, and passive human biosignals
in a simulated hazardous exploration environment. Our system design extracts
and publishes biofeatures through the Robot Operating System (ROS),
facilitating real time psychophysiology-based MW model integration into
complete end-to-end systems. A VR simulation pipeline capable of evaluating MWs
online could be foundational for advancing HR systems and VR experiences by
enabling these systems to adaptively alter their behaviors in response to
operator MW.
