Investigations on the Influence of Continuous Driving on the Motion Activity of Vehicle Drivers

Abstract

Changes of the motion activity of car drivers as a result of monotonous driving tasks should be investigated under the aspect of decreasing vigilance. The electro-myogram was supposed to be the indicator for decreasing vigilance of the driver. This could not be confirmed under the actual test situation with motorically active subjects. The myo-integral was rather found to be an indicator of instantaneous changes in the driver-vehicle-environment control-circuit caused by changes of the traffic situation or the road quality.

The motion activity was measured at the back of the driver seat. It was not only transformed into time segmented RMS-values but also counted as frequencies of pre-adjusted level crossings. A summary comparison of both 3 hour test sections of continuous highway driving showed a transfer of the total motion activity and the motion frequency from the thorax to the pelvis area. In the second test section an increased motion frequency was noticed and motions with high amplitude were transferred from the thorax to the pelvis area.

Investigations were carried out at the Technical University of Berlin (Institut für Fahrzeugtechnik, Prof. H.-P. Willumeit) and were sponsored by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Le 418/1).