A Study of Driver Fatigue Detection System for Heavy Trucks and Fatigue Management System

This paper reports on a study undertaken to evaluate a driver fatigue detection system for drivers of heavy trucks. The detection system was developed under test-driving conditions that include 24 hours of driving on a test track at Nihon University and 12 hours of driving on a national highway in Japan. The level of driver fatigue is shown as a Driver Fatigue Index (DFI). After the detection system was installed in the heavy trucks used in this study, various experiments aimed at establishing practical usage parameters for the system were conducted under actual operating conditions. These included truck positioning data (verified by GPS), three-dimensional acceleration levels, the vehicle’s operating speed, the driver’s heart rate, body surface temperature, and DFI. The collected data was transmitted automatically to the researchers by a mobile packet transmission system. The results of the study were displayed on a web page used by operations managers to monitor driver fatigue levels for road safety purposes. The authors conclude that unconscious movements, such as a driver rotating his neck, can indicate that the driver has begun to feel tiredness. This tendency may vary depending on each individual driver, but the researchers determined that driver fatigue can be detected using this method. This method also offers the benefit of not requiring the installation of special sensors on the driver's body or the video monitoring of the driver's face. Instead, driver fatigue state can be monitored using a sensor attached to the driver seat.

• Corporate Authors:

  ITS America

  1100 17th Street, NW, 12th Floor
  Washington, DC  United States  20036
• Authors:
  • Nakayama, Haruyuki
• Conference:
  • 15th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems and ITS America's 2008 Annual Meeting
  • Location: New York NY, United States
  • Date: 2008-11-16 to 2008-11-20
• Publication Date: 2008

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: CD-ROM
• Features: Figures; Maps; References;
• Pagination: 9p
• Monograph Title: ITS Connections: Saving Time. Saving Lives

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Detectors; Fatigue (Physiological condition); Heart rate; Heavy duty trucks; Highway safety; Human factors; Real time information; Risk assessment; Traffic managers; Truck drivers; Video cameras
• Geographic Terms: Japan
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Freight Transportation; Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01135980
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jul 28 2009 1:11PM