Driver Assessment with Measures of Continuous Control Behavior

This paper reviews past research on stimulus/response analysis methods in continuous control tasks, and describes procedures for specifically measuring driver behavior in a car following task. Example driving simulator data is given for drivers with disease impairments. The data processing methods are summarized and example results are given to demonstrate the data analysis approach. Analysis of driver steering and speed control behavior have been used to identify normal highway operations and effects of various impairments, including drugs, alcohol, fatigue and medical conditions. Typical measures might include characteristics of control (steering, throttle, brake) activity, such as control reversals and expected values such as mean and standard deviation. More powerful time series analysis methods look at the relationship between stimulus and response variables. Fourier analysis procedures have been used to carry out stimulus/response relationships, such as steering response to wind gusts and roadway curvature, and speed response to lead vehicle speed variations. These methods allow the analysis of driver time delay in responding to stimulus inputs, and the correlation of driver response to the stimulus input. Typically, driver impairments lead to responses with increased time delay and decreased correlation.