Introducing a method to compare the hand position of drivers under wheel steering task: preliminary results

摘要

The task of turning a steering wheel requires a minimum amount of strength and amplitude. Such requirements may be lacking in aged and/or disabled drivers. The VOL-HAND project aims to ease driving condition for those drivers by enhancing existing power steering systems. The very first step is to measure the gesture of turning a steering wheel, starting with the understanding of hand position strategy. Hand positioning on a steering wheel has already been studied in relation to traffic complexity (De Waard et al. 2010) or fatigue (Walton and Thomas 2005) and can reflect ability of drivers to manage the steering task. Indeed, drivers with limited arm amplitude may have difficulties to easily reach the upper part of the steering wheel, due to a lack of strength to beat gravity or specific pathology within shoulder joint for example. From our knowledge, a convenient way to analyse and to compare hand position chronology for repetitive driving task does not exist in the literature. The present study introduces an innovative representation of a steering task that shows hand position sequences. Such a representation allows to easily compare steering strategy of drivers.