The effect of an active steering system on city bus drivers’ muscle activity

City bus drivers spend hours driving under time pressure, in congested traffic and in a monotonous sitting position. This leads to unhealthy working conditions, especially in terms of physical and psychological stress. The aim of this study is to investigate whether an active steering system can alleviate the musculoskeletal stress involved in manoeuvring a bus. Twenty bus drivers drove a city bus equipped with the Volvo dynamic steering (VDS) support system in real traffic. Steering effort was evaluated with electromyography and with a questionnaire. Compared to baseline, VDS significantly reduced the required muscle activity by on average 15–25% while turning, and up to 68% in the part of the manoeuvre requiring maximum effort. The bus drivers believed that VDS will help reduce neck and shoulder problems, and they expressed a desire to have VDS installed in their own bus.

[1]  Dario Farina,et al.  Upper trapezius muscle mechanomyographic and electromyographic activity in humans during low force fatiguing and non-fatiguing contractions , 2002, European Journal of Applied Physiology.

[2]  C. D. De Luca,et al.  Myoelectrical manifestations of localized muscular fatigue in humans. , 1984, Critical reviews in biomedical engineering.

[3]  Eric Moulines,et al.  A blind source separation technique using second-order statistics , 1997, IEEE Trans. Signal Process..

[4]  Olanrewaju O Okunribido,et al.  City bus driving and low back pain: a study of the exposures to posture demands, manual materials handling and whole-body vibration. , 2007, Applied ergonomics.

[5]  Carlo J. De Luca,et al.  The Use of Surface Electromyography in Biomechanics , 1997 .

[6]  Kathryn Mearns,et al.  Bus driver well-being review: 50 years of research , 2006 .

[7]  Leonid Kalichman,et al.  Upper Body Quadrant Pain in Bus Drivers , 2010, Archives of environmental & occupational health.

[8]  Mizuno Takahiro,et al.  Function of shoulder muscles of driver in vehicle steering maneuver , 2012 .

[9]  Chaoyang Chen,et al.  Muscle activity and co-contraction of musculoskeletal model during steering maneuver. , 2014, Bio-medical materials and engineering.

[10]  C. J. Luca.  Myoelectrical manifestations of localized muscular fatigue in humans. , 1984 .

[11]  Knaflitz,et al.  Myoelectric manifestations of fatigue in voluntary and electrically elicited contractions. , 1990, Journal of applied physiology.

[12]  M A Kompier,et al.  Bussy business: how urban bus drivers cope with time pressure, passengers, and traffic safety. , 1998, Journal of occupational health psychology.

[13]  Daniel E. Williams,et al.  Reduction of Transit Bus Driver Workload Using Synthetic Torque Feedback , 2008 .

[14]  B. Jonsson,et al.  Function of the muscles of the upper limb in car driving. , 1975, Ergonomics.

[15]  D Chaffin,et al.  High-pass filtering to remove electrocardiographic interference from torso EMG recordings. , 1993, Clinical biomechanics.

[16]  Daniel E. Williams.  Synthetic torque feedback to improve heavy vehicle drivability , 2009 .

[17]  D G Wilder,et al.  Are Occupational Drivers at an Increased Risk for Developing Musculoskeletal Disorders? , 1996, Spine.

[18]  Yong Hu,et al.  ECG Cancellation for Surface Electromyography Measurement Using Independent Component Analysis , 2007, 2007 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems.

[19]  C. Taklikar.  Occupational stress and its associated health disorders among bus drivers , 2016 .