Suitability of heart rate recording as physiological measures tool to determine drivers’ performance impairment: A preliminary study

Performance impairment may occur if the driver feels fatigue while driving. this study investigated the drivers’ condition while performing one hour driving simulation in a controlled environment. the aim of this study was to evaluate whether heart rate measures can be used to detect impaired driver performance as well as reduced alertness. there are two different experiments conducted among the subjects; (i) without vibration and (ii) with vibration. a monotonous driving simulation scenario with low demand of traffic flow was utilized to detect drivers’ performance impairment. heart rate (hr) was recorded over the entire experiment; (i) 30 minutes before driving,(ii) one hour during driving and (iii) 30 minutes after driving in the morning before lunch break. the baseline measurement was recorded when the subject has performed his daily routine in the same hours of experiment,which is about three hours. hr measures were derived and correlated to variation of lane deviation (vld),a driving performance measure,and to the driver's state,which was estimated by the karolinska sleepiness scale (kss). experimental result shows all subjects’ hr data were lower at the end of the driving task,particularly when driving in the simulator without vibration. based on kss evaluation,subjects tend to feel sleepy during driving and become less sleepy when they reach the destination. in term of vld,all subjects tend xto cross the lane,which means they were not focused to the task. in conclusion,hr can be used as a tool to detect drivers’ performance and it is a useful indicator of physiological adaptation and intensity of effort. © 2015 penerbit utm press. all rights reserved.