In this study of eighteen wheel loader operators, test-driving a machine in three different traction force settings, we examine if a workload index derived from psychophysiological measurements of heart rate, finger temperature, skin conductance, respiration rate and end-tidal CO2-concentration in exhaled air can be easily used to assess operator workload in sufficient detail to use it as a complement to traditional subjective evaluations in machine testing, either of real machines or in a human-in-the-loop simulator. In a longer perspective, such measurements are expected to play a role in a workload-adaptive operator assistance system. However, the findings do not give support for this vision. Instead they indicate that other types of measurements than what have been used in our study should be employed if ease of use for practitioners such as test engineers is in focus, but also that other factors than just machine operability must be considered to have a great influence on the operator workload.
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