The PLEIADI project selected by the Italian Space Agency

Next2U is one of the partners in PLEIADI, a project selected by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) under its call for research in space biomedicine, aimed at supporting future human space exploration missions. The project is coordinated by the Center for Advanced Studies and Technology (CAST) at the University "G. d'Annunzio" of Chieti-Pescara, has secured funding of approximately €822,000, and will run for 36 months.

PLEIADI - short for "Platform for monitoring personnel involved in long-duration missions in low Earth orbit, integrating artificial intelligence, affective computing and inducible physiological responses" - aims to develop a system capable of continuously and non-invasively monitoring astronauts' psychophysical state, correlating stress, emotions and workload with cardiovascular, immune, metabolic and biochemical parameters. The platform will combine wearable devices, NIR-LWIR imaging technologies, and low-power edge devices, allowing data to be processed directly on board and reducing dependence on communication with Earth.

Within the consortium - which also includes CAST, the BioEngineering Lab at the University "G. d'Annunzio", the Department of Clinical and Biological Sciences at the University of Turin, and Kayser Italia - Next2U will contribute its expertise in artificial intelligence and affective computing, helping to develop the models that translate astronauts' physiological and emotional signals into early indicators of risk and psychophysical strain.

The trial will involve twelve volunteers, split into two crews, who will take part in a ten-day analog mission at the Analog Astronaut Training Center in Rzepiennik, Poland.

For Next2U, taking part in PLEIADI marks a leap toward space: an opportunity to bring its know-how into an area of extraordinary complexity, with the goal of developing solutions that, beyond space missions, could also find applications in telemedicine and in monitoring people in extreme environments.