Assessment of Driver Movements during Prolonged Driving Using Seat Pressure Measurements

Driver’s physiological state changes with the increase of driving time. The current study used seat pressure to examine the driver movements (result from driver’s physiological state changes) during prolonged driving. Two experiments were conducted in real vehicle and driving simulator, respectively. Ten male participants were divided into two groups to complete the two experiments, respectively. According to the results of the real vehicle experiment, moment center in the seat back and average pressures were found to have significant correlation with time. The results indicated that there were two kinds of movements: (1) participants turned their heads front, their backs became more curving, and their knees rose; (2) participants turned their heads rear, their back angles became larger, and their knees rose. The results of driving simulator experiment proved that the seat pressure was sensitive to movements, and proved that effects of driving movements (result from driving task) on the seat pressure were significant, which indicated the control of redundant movements, including driving movements, was very important in the study.