World Solar Challenge: Long Distance Driver Fatigue In Lightweight Vehicles

Literature Review

Due to long driving, many drivers of lightweight vehicles face uneasiness, discomfort and pain on the back mainly due to continuously constant posture as well as the angle of the seat with respect to the body. In addition, the continuous vibration of the vehicles also adds up to the discomfort of the driver. This is becoming an extremely serious problem as the numbers of cars are increasing at a significant rate globally and people are preferring travel by car for long drives and trips. As a result, more and more drivers nowadays are facing the same problem.

This project has been developed to theoretically and experimentally analyze the various effects contributing to the discomfort of lightweight car drivers during long distance drives. The ultimate objective of this study is mainly for developing a solar powered lightweight car that will be used for participation in a competition, where a driver will be required to drive the car for 300 km under harsh conditions. This drive will be analyzed for identifying the various issues of discomfort faced by the driver.

The requirement for this research is increased by various late administrative activities put forth by different government organizations. For instance, according to Zhigang et al. (2014), the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has discharged its Safety Action Plan, which calls for diminishing fatalities in crashes including substantial cars by as much as half and diminishing wounds by no less than 20%. Vehicle vibrations, which business vehicle drivers are subjected to, would be a piece of the OSHA ergonomic standard. The above endeavors require a superior comprehension of human fatigue in business vehicles, specifically as it identifies with the vehicle outline and working condition, through productive and logically based strategies that can be utilized successfully practically speaking. Jagannath and Balasubramanian (2014) said that the DOT has presented its business car driver hours-of-benefit (HOS) change want to Congress to confine the hours that car drivers can work. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has proposed an arrangement of ergonomic standards to diminish and counteract dull movement related working environment damage. As the years progressed, the transportation business has endeavored to address the issue of driver fatigue in vehicles. Nevertheless, countless issues with respect to fatigue as a rule 2 and the impact of the driver situate outline specifically still remain. These must be tended to before we can make a less exhausting and more secure condition in business vehicles (Siren and Meng 2013). Studies have built up a few approved measures that can be utilized to assess driver comfort. These investigations incorporate goal and subjective estimations on a progression of various seat pads by a subset of drivers. Approval of these measures is performed by discovering some deterministic connection between physical information and driver comfort surveys. While the advantage of a dependable measure to assess driver fatigue caused by the dynamic condition is clear, there are numerous impediments that have counteracted researchers in setting up such measures. The essential trouble is the impact of the dynamic human-vehicle interface on human fatigue is not notable. While these investigations have had a few triumphs distinguishing a few measures of comfort on froth situate pads, even this comprehension is restricted. Moreover, it is not known if these outcomes specifically apply to various seating innovations. Human fatigue is influenced by numerous physical variables, including the weight profile at the seat region, pose, body flow and vibrations, and various natural factors in the vehicle taxi. All through this report, the expression “comfort” is utilized to characterize the transient impact of a seat on the human body, which is regularly the impression that happens from sitting on a seat for a brief timeframe. Conversely, the expression “fatigue” is utilized to characterize the physical weakness that outcomes from introduction to the seat elements for a drawn out stretch of time (Apostolopoulos, Lemke and Sönmez 2014). While there have been great outcomes in the zone of comfort, many investigations have demonstrated that there is little connection between’s comfort (the transient sensation) and fatigue (the long haul physical impact) of a seat. As such, what may feel comfortable upon starting contact with the human body will not really be less exhausting over the long haul. This implies the investigations performed for comfort can’t be specifically connected to fatigue. Fatigue may prompt diminished consideration, recognition, basic leadership, carefulness, and response time. Subjective testing is additionally confused by subject inconstancy, which incorporates physical, physiological, and mental contrasts between drivers. Since this fluctuation 3 makes it harder to discover critical patterns, bigger specimen sizes are frequently used to decrease the impact of this inconstancy. Regardless of the trouble in setting up these measures, an arrangement of approved physical estimations to assess driver fatigue would have preferences as far as expanded comprehension of the impact of a dynamic domain on driver fatigue and enhanced outlines as far as driver fatigue (Useche, Cendales and Gómez 2017). In the extent of a comfort contemplate; a huge specimen estimate is achievable, as each subject’s assessment may take just a couple of minutes. On account of a fatigue examine, nonetheless, vast example estimate isn’t down to earth, as it can incredibly increment both cost and time, since each subject’s fatigue assessment can take hours or even days. Along these lines, the test confronting mainstream researchers, unique equipment makers (OEM), and seat providers is the way to assess fatigue in light of an arrangement of physical estimations that can be promptly made in the vehicle and on the administrator, and utilize that information to build up administrator fatigue. In spite of the fact that a preparatory research center investigation has endeavored to address this test, much work still stays as far as further approving the proposed approaches through more practical field tests.

Research Questions, Aims/Objectives, Sub-Goals

Based on the initial requirement analysis, the following set of research questions can be determined.

1. What are the effects of long distance driving on the drivers in lightweight vehicles?
2. What is the role of the driver’s posture in the cause of discomfort?
3. What is the role of the car vibration in the cause of discomfort?

Accordingly, the aims and objectives of the project along with the sub-goals are as follows.

Objective 1: To conduct literature review based on long distance driving and driver comfort

Sub-Goal: To find the effects of the car vibration and driver’s posture on his comfort

Objective 2: To conduct an experiment (field test) to find more details about driver fatigue in long distance drives

Sub-Goal: To study the effects of vibration on the driver’s fatigue throughout the field test

Lightweight cars are one of a kind as in they are particularly created to transport people over long distances without any difficulty. As needs be, high need has been given to toughness and utilitarian productivity. Interestingly, the cars are made to comfortably suit travelers over generally shorter separations. Both the individual car and the business car encounter a similar street excitations, yet the vehicle reaction can be very unique. In like manner, the car situate has created from the one of a kind dynamic properties of the car (Phillips and Sagberg 2013). Car drivers spend extend periods of time in the driver’s seat contrasted with the normal worker. Components including ride comfort, handling, and appearance are of high significance in offering individual autos. These prerequisites have driven the development of business car outline and individual vehicle configuration in particular ways. Of specific significance in the advancement of business cars is the car situate. It is this diminished driving capability that has incited research researchers to recognize the particular reasons for discomfort and fatigue related with car situate outline and moreover to create measures for assessing them (Rufa’I et al. 2015). Extended periods of situated action in a dynamic domain can prompt discomfort and even fatigue, which can cause diminished consideration, recognition, basic leadership, carefulness, and response time – all significant to safe driving.

Introduction to vibration can make an expansive range of sensation the human body contingent upon the sort of vibration, the physical attributes of the individual, and the span of presentation. The capacity of the vehicle to limit discomfort and fatigue because of these vibrations is of real worry of both suspension and seat outline. Vibration can prompt both discomfort and fatigue, however in various ways. Driving is a dynamic action in which the seated individual is presented to different excitation sources (Shackel and Parkin 2014). These sources incorporate contributions from street unpleasantness, the tire/wheel get together, the driveline, and the car. Discomfort is generally connected with the dynamic properties of the human body and how it responds to vibration. For instance, it turns out to be very uncomfortable when the neck and head are shaken at their thunderous recurrence. The muscle tissue and organs act both effectively and latently act to control vibration and subsequently can wind up plainly fatigued. Fatigue because of vibration is believed to be caused by delayed muscle movement, both deliberate and automatic, coming about because of the body’s endeavor to check the vibration.

Theoretical Content

Street tests will be performed utilizing existing lightweight cars in the everyday operations in order to address the developed research questions. A retrofit air-swelled seat pad will introduced in the test cars, and the drivers will be permitted to conform to the seats over around one week. After this modification period, twelve drivers will ride on both the air-swelled seat pad and their unique situate pad within the testing phase, for a sum of 120 hour and 4800 miles of field testing. Surveys will be gathered all through the test sessions and the car seats will be fitted with instrumentation to catch physical estimations of seat weight dissemination.

Many examinations have demonstrated that there is little relationship between’s comfort (the transient sensation) and fatigue (the long haul physical impact) of a seat. As it were, what may feel comfortable on introductory contact with the body will not really be less exhausting over the long haul. This reverse relationship has additionally been bolstered with respect to comfort where research has discovered that comfort assessments for here and now and long haul driving do not concur. A couple of studies have demonstrated the conceivable relationship amongst fatigue and low recurrence vibration ordinarily experienced via car drivers. Likewise, it has been discovered that vibration introduction causes changes in body science that could prompt fatigue impacts. Nevertheless, in many investigations fatigue must be coherently reasoned without supporting confirmation.

In particular, among city transport drivers, there are different working modalities as indicated by driving hours, some of them more basic than others for the strength of this word related gathering. As indicated by the investigations performed by research encounters, rehashed lacking recuperation from business related fatigue, could be clarified as the take-off of an endless loop; in this sense, the performed additional exertion “must be applied toward the start of each new working period to rebalance the imperfect psychophysiological state, and to avert execution breakdown”. In a past reports, some researchers found that rates of self-reported fatigue were higher on drivers of open administration performing two day by day moves (split timetable) than those performed amid just a single move for every day, in spite of the fact that this move keeps going twice as long. Given that rest is the instrument second to none by which recuperation is performed, in circumstances of rehashed introduction to stressors, delayed initiation and inadequate rest, it is regular to discover a break in the homeostatic adjust, following a total change process, bringing about negative mental and physiological responses that may wind up noticeably irreversible in the soundness of drivers. As indicated by the proof, the primary driver of fatigue of drivers shows to be sluggishness gotten from rest misfortune, remaining wakeful for intemperate periods, and the reality of driving amid the circadian low. Some of these impacts, as indicated by their many-sided quality, can run from a straightforward delayed sentiment fatigue to perpetual rest issues and the improvement of manifestations identified with burnout, every one of them conceivably debilitating the driving execution.

The project plan is based on the following deliverables as follows.

Task Name	Duration	Start	Finish
Analysis of Driver Fatigue in Long Distance Travel	365 days	Mon 23-10-17	Fri 15-03-19
Research Initiation	25 days	Mon 23-10-17	Fri 24-11-17
Research Requirement Analysis	5 days	Mon 23-10-17	Fri 27-10-17
Preparation of Requirement Draft	5 days	Mon 30-10-17	Fri 03-11-17
Analysis of Research Scope	5 days	Mon 06-11-17	Fri 10-11-17
Analysis of Research Objective	5 days	Mon 13-11-17	Fri 17-11-17
Development of Research Questions	5 days	Mon 20-11-17	Fri 24-11-17
Theoretical Study	60 days	Mon 27-11-17	Fri 16-02-18
Detailed Literature Review	15 days	Mon 27-11-17	Fri 15-12-17
Collection of Data	15 days	Mon 18-12-17	Fri 05-01-18
Analysis of Data	20 days	Mon 08-01-18	Fri 02-02-18
Identification of Data that Addresses Research Questions	10 days	Mon 05-02-18	Fri 16-02-18
Experimental Study	260 days	Mon 19-02-18	Fri 15-02-19
Setting Up of Experimental Setup	30 days	Mon 19-02-18	Fri 30-03-18
Renting of Cars for Field Testing	10 days	Mon 02-04-18	Fri 13-04-18
Hiring of Volunteer Drivers	10 days	Mon 16-04-18	Fri 27-04-18
Initiation of Field Testing	5 days	Mon 30-04-18	Fri 04-05-18
Detailed Field Testing	150 days	Mon 07-05-18	Fri 30-11-18
Collection of Experimental Data	15 days	Mon 03-12-18	Fri 21-12-18
Analysis of the Experimental Data	30 days	Mon 24-12-18	Fri 01-02-19
Determination of Final Conclusion	10 days	Mon 04-02-19	Fri 15-02-19
Research Closing	20 days	Mon 18-02-19	Fri 15-03-19
Final Analysis and Comparison of Theoretical and Experimental Data	10 days	Mon 18-02-19	Fri 01-03-19
Documentation	10 days	Mon 04-03-19	Fri 15-03-19

Accordingly, the Gantt Chart is as follows.

Figure 1: Gantt chart of the Project

(Source: Created by Author)

In addition, the work breakdown structure is as follows.

Figure 2: WBS of the Project

(Source: Created by Author)

Conclusion

The expression “seat comfort” is normally used to characterize the fleeting impact of a seat on a human body; that is, the impression that ordinarily happens from sitting on a seat for a brief timeframe. Comfort is a dubious idea and subjective in nature. It is for the most part characterized as absence of discomfort. The issue, in any case, with subjective assessments is that they are to a great degree expensive and tedious. Accordingly, a lot of research has been performed as of late to discover target measures for foreseeing seat comfort observation. A portion of the proposed target measures incorporate vibration, interface weight, and muscle movement. These target measures are associated with subjective information to decide the relative impacts of each measure identified with comfort. The fleeting comfort offered by a seat is moderately simple to decide by many measures, the best of which is to survey potential clients of the seat as they look at the “vibe” of a seat for a brief timeframe against different seats in a similar class. This training is regularly embraced for various vehicles, going from traveler vehicles to business vehicles, for example, cars, transports, and go romping vehicles. Interestingly, “driver fatigue” characterizes the physical disability that outcomes from introduction to the seat elements for a drawn out stretch of time. These disabilities are intellectual in nature and incorporate lacks in consideration, recognition, basic leadership, carefulness, and response time. Driver fatigue is a difficult issue bringing about a huge number of street mishaps every year. As indicated by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), fatigue might be a contributing element in upwards of 30 to 40% of all substantial car collisions.

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