Academic literature on the topic 'Driver’s optical reaction'

The main problem of driving safety in the dark for drivers is the recognition of elements of the traffic situation. Changes in the characteristics of visual perception are due to changes in illumination, brightness of the color contrast of important and significant for the driver stimuli during movement. It is the recognition of existing obstacles in terms of contrast and brightness that is the biggest problem for drivers. When driving at night, drivers are prone to dazzle, they are less able to distinguish colors, and the field of view is significantly reduced. The availability of technical means for regulating traffic in accordance with road conditions and pedestrian traffic in the dark are the main means that allow the driver to navigate while driving. The driver's reaction time to the appearance of danger is decisive in the event of conflict situations in the dark. Driver reaction time is an important indicator of road safety. The reaction time is constantly changing and depends on many factors of working conditions, the functional state of the driver. Working conditions cause fatigue and emotional stress. The change in reaction time depends on the state of health, the intake of certain medications, the state of drug and alcohol intoxication, etc. In addition, a person's age, gender and experience also affect the reaction time. A simpler and more effective method for studying the distribution of reaction time and patterns of change is the use of an individual car with recording equipment. It has been proven that car drivers can keep their distance, brake synchronously and maintain braking force in accordance with the leading car braking and being in front. Therefore, to study the parameters of movement along the route, we used the device racelogic "VideoVbox". Experimental studies on city streets at night have been carried out, have shown the relationship between the driver's reaction time and traffic conditions. The study involved drivers between the ages of 20 and 40. As a result, regularities were obtained for the change in the reaction time under different lighting conditions and the traffic load factor of the streets. It has been found that with a low load factor, the driver is more likely to be distracted and has a worse reaction time. The optimal load for the driver is a load factor ranging from 0.35-0.55 with the best response times. The constructed model of the driver's reaction time can be used in expert practice to establish the circumstances of the occurrence of road accidents.

Abstract With the introduction of advanced driving assistance systems managing longitudinal and lateral control, conditional automated driving is seemingly in near future of series vehicles. While take-over behavior in the passenger car context has been investigated intensively in recent years, publications on semi-trucks with professional drivers are sparse. The effects influencing expert drivers during take-overs in this context lack thorough investigation and are required to design systems that facilitate safe take-overs. While multiple findings seem to cohere in passenger cars and semi-trucks, these findings rely on simulated studies without taking environments as found in the real world into account. A test track study was conducted, simulating highway driving with 27 professional non-affiliated truck drivers. The participants drove an automated Level 3 semi-truck while a non-driving-related task was available. Multiple time critical take-over situations were initiated during the drives to investigate four main objectives regarding driver behavior. (1) With these results, comparison of reaction times and behavior can be drawn to previous simulator studies. The effect of situation criticality (2) and training (3) of take-over situations is investigated. (4) The influence of warning expectation on driver behavior is explored. Results obtained displayed very quick time to hands on steering and time to first reaction all under 2.4 s. Highly critical situations generate very quick reaction times M = 0.81 s, while the manipulation of expectancy yielded no significant variation in reaction times. These reaction times serve as a reference of what can be expected from drivers under optimal take-over conditions, with quick reactions at high speed in critical situations.

The aim of this paper is to analyze driver's hands coordinates on the steering wheel for an optimal and safe driving experience. A good coordination of the driver's action on the controls is the result of a comfortable position that leads to an optimal reaction while driving. The presented study implies using a thermal imaging camera for analysing palms temperature changes in the contact area with the steering wheel. The resulting data shows that the optimal driving position of drivers' hands is 0° and 180° associating the steering wheel with and trigonometric circle.

As typical weak visual reference systems, highway tunnels have low illumination, monotonous environment and few references, which may cause severe visual illusion and reduce drivers’ speed perception ability. Thus, drivers tend to underestimate their driving speed, which may induce speeding behaviours that result in rear-end collisions. The cost-effective pavement markings installed on both sides of the lane or shoulder may make drivers overestimate their speed. This perception can help ensure safe driving and regulate driving behaviour effectively. This study analyses the effects of sidewall markings in typical low luminance highway tunnels, specifically observing how their angles and lengths affect the driver’s speed perception. A three-dimensional model of highway tunnels was built in a driving simulator. Psychophysical tests of speed perception were carried out by the method of limits. The simulation tests studied the Stimulus of Subjectively Equal Speed (SSES) and reaction time in relation to sidewall markings with different angles. Furthermore, based on the optimal angle, the effects of sidewall marking with different lengths on speed perception were also analysed. The test results reveal that the angle and length of sidewall markings have a significant impact on the driver’s SSES and reaction time. Moreover, the level of speed overestimation decreases with the increase of angle or length of sidewall marking. As the angle of sidewall marking gradually increases, the maximum reaction time first increases and then decreases. Within the angle of sidewall marking of 15°, the subjects have the highest speed overestimation and an easy speed judgment. This may due to Zöllner illusion, the driver’s perception of lane width shrinks may induce deceleration behaviour.

The increasing demand for Electric Vehicle (EV) charging is putting pressure on the power grids and capacities of charging stations. This work focuses on how to use indirect control through price signals to level out the load curve in order to avoid the power consumption from exceeding these capacities. We propose mathematical programming models for the indirect control of EV charging that aim at finding an optimal set of price signals to be sent to the drivers based on price elasticities. The objective is to satisfy the demand for a given price structure, or minimize the curtailment of loads, when there is a shortage of capacity. The key contribution is the use of elasticity matrices through which it is possible to estimate the EV drivers’ reactions to the price signals. As real-world data on relating the elasticity values to the EV driver’s behaviour are currently non-existent, we concentrate on sensitivity analysis to test how different assumptions on elasticities affect the optimal price structure. In particular, we study how market segments of drivers with different elasticities may affect the ability of the operator to both handle a capacity problem and properly satisfy the charging needs.

The development of accurate and robust models in the field of car following has suffered greatly from the lack of appropriate microscopic data. Because of this lack, little is known about differences in car-following behavior between individual driver–vehicle combinations. This paper studies the car-following behaviors of individual drivers by making use of vehicle trajectory data extracted from high-resolution digital images collected at a high frequency from a helicopter. The analysis was performed by estimating the parameters of different specifications of the well-known Gazis–Herman–Rothery car-following rule for individual drivers. This analysis showed that a relation between the stimuli and the response could be established in 80% of the cases. The main contribution of this paper is that considerable differences between the car-following behaviors of individual drivers could be identified. These differences are expressed as different optimal parameter values for the reaction time and the sensitivity, as well as different car-following models that appear to be optimal on the basis of the data for individual drivers.

The traditional braking model does not consider the impact of drivers' visual distance error, which leads to deviation in determining the distance between vehicles, and therefore effective braking model cannot be built. In order to solve this problem, the paper proposes a modeling method reflecting the relationship between psychology of night vision and braking distance to get the optimal braking reaction speed thus realizing intelligent emergency brake control. The experimental results show that the model takes the relationship between psychology of night vision and braking distance into consideration, increases the braking reaction speed of the drivers, and has high robustness.

The article presents a model for establishing the optimal speed of movement on highways, taking into account the determination of the braking distance in winter slippery conditions. According to the research results, it was established that the main criterion for the formation of road accidents on highways in winter slippery conditions is the drivers' underestimation of the adhesion qualities of road surfaces. The main criterion of the model under consideration is the interaction of the car wheel (braking distance) with the road (adhesion coefficient) and is a complex that characterizes the stability of the car rolling over on slippery surfaces and the driver's actions in making an effective decision and the duration of the reaction time. In the proposed mathematical model, the accident rate on a slippery road is estimated by the coefficient of adhesion of icy road surfaces, the value of the load or the average wheel pressure. Also, the frequency of load application, the amount of deflection of the coating (at an air temperature above +20 ° C), rolling resistance, the coefficient of adhesion of the car wheel to the coating. One of the main characteristics of the model is a subsystem - the average pressure p = Q / S (S is the area of the imprint of the wheel, cm²), etc. Thus, in the process of analyzing the results of the causes of road traffic accidents, the factors of the driver's reliability and the decisions made will be taken into account, which depend on the speed of vehicles in any condition of the road surface.

The article deals with the measurement of dynamic effects that are transmitted to the driver (passenger) when driving in a car over obstacles. The measurements were performed in a real environment on a defined track at different driving speeds and different distributions of obstacles on the road. The reaction of the human organism, respectively the load of the cervical vertebrae and the heads of the driver and passenger, was measured. Experimental measurements were performed for different variants of driving conditions on a 28-year-old and healthy man. The measurement’s main objective was to determine the acceleration values of the seats in the vehicle in the vertical movement of parts of the vehicle cabin and to determine the dynamic effects that are transmitted to the driver and passenger in a car when driving over obstacles. The measurements were performed in a real environment on a defined track at various driving speeds and diverse distributions of obstacles on the road. The acceleration values on the vehicle’s axles and the structure of the driver’s and front passenger’s seats, under the buttocks, at the top of the head (Vertex Parietal Bone) and the C7 cervical vertebra (Vertebra Cervicales), were measured. The result of the experiment was to determine the maximum magnitudes of acceleration in the vertical direction on the body of the driver and the passenger of the vehicle when passing a passenger vehicle over obstacles. The analysis of the experiment’s results is the basis for determining the future direction of the research.