Outfitting a Freightliner Tractor for Measuring Driver Fatigue and Vehicle Kinematics During Closed-Track Testing

This paper describes the instrumentation used to study how the control inputs of 17 long-haul truck drivers were affected by fatigue. The task required outfitting a test vehicle to accurately measure the following control inputs and resulting vehicle behavior:

• Vehicle speed,

• Steering wheel angle and angular velocity,
• Accelerator pedal angle and angular velocity,
• Perception/response time,
• Driver EEG and heart rate,
• Clinical assessment of driver fatigue,
• Vehicle lateral lane position, and
• Car-following distance.

The location and mounting procedure of each instrument as well as the sampling requirements for each device are discussed. Also discussed are the methods of data handling and storage.