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Session: Behavior & Monitoring
Session starts: Thursday 24 January, 13:30
Presentation starts: 14:45
Room: Lecture room 535

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Ingrid Koopmans (CHDR)
Hein van der Wall (CHDR)
Ernst Jan Bos (CHDR)
Hemme Hijma (CHDR)
Robert-Jan Doll (CHDR)
Rob Zuiker (CHDR)
Adam Cohen (CHDR)

Abstract:
Driving a car is a complex task which requires the integration of various aspects related to the central nervous system (CNS). Impairments in sensory processing, cognitive functions, or motor-function have a negative effect on driving performance, which in turn can result in increased accident rates. Known origins of impaired driving behaviour include sleep deprivation, the consumption of alcohol, or the use of certain types of medication. The current standardized on-the-road-driving test to capture driving behaviour requires subjects to drive on a straight lane at a speed of 95km/h. A single camera then monitors the lateral position of the car on the road. The standard deviation of the lateral position (SDLP) is then used as a measure of driving performance. This method, however, is limited to specific highway trajectories allowing only minimal interactions with external variables (e.g., other drivers). Here, we introduce a method which aims to characterize driving behaviour in more detail, while allowing a more realistic driving test. The Centre for Human Drug Research (CHDR) equipped a car with multiple sensors and cameras. Besides the lateral position on the road, this car is able to extract both internal (e.g., steering-rotations, throttle, brakes, and gear) and external (e.g., number of and position to surrounding vehicles) parameters. All sensor-data is frequently sampled and synchronously stored on-board. For safety purposes, a driving instructor has access to dual controls (i.e., clutch, brake, and throttle). To demonstrate the feasibility of this car to allow a more realistic driving test, we first demonstrate the capability of measuring the SDLP. Ten healthy volunteers drove a pre-defined route twice. For both drives, the SDLP was calculated. It was found that the SDLP was reproducible between sessions with relatively low intra-subject variability (6.6-9.4%) compared to the between-subject variability (15.4-19.6%). For the next steps, we are going to (1) identify additional parameters to describe driving behaviour, and (2) study the sensitivity of these parameters to detect changes in driving behaviour. In the end, this car will provide a more elaborate characterization of driving behaviour by including interactions with other road users and allow for flexible trajectories.