Inter and intra-individual differences in steering wheel hand positions during a simulated driving task

Abstract

This paper describes an experimental study focusing onto the way drivers use the steering wheel while performing a 2D tracking task. The stimulus during this task was a steering wheel angle signal recorded in real situations involving turns and straight lines performed at about 30 km/h. The hand positions of 20 volunteers were recorded in 6 steering scenarios involving 7 road geometries using a 3D motion capture system. The hand movement data were analysed via a descriptive/inferential procedure: each hand was considered using nine indicators – eight membership value averages linked to eight fuzzy angle windows and a frequency value related to the off steering wheel position – while the indicators were investigated using multiple correspondence analysis and non-parametric global and post-hoc tests. Results showed that inter-individual differences were larger than intra-individual differences. Considering 2 × 9 = 18 windows, the inter-individual differences mainly appeared during two main kinds of steering hand strategies: with versus without crossing hands, the latter being the most often used (17 among 20 participants). The intra-individual data showed that some drivers maintained a nearly identical strategy for all road geometries, while other drivers changed their hand position with the direction and/or maximum angle value of the turn.

Abstract

Practitioner Summary: Understanding hand position strategy could be used to design steering wheel assistance in relation to a driver's physical resources with a view to adapting the steering wheel to disabled drivers.

Keywords::

• motion analysis
• driving
• steering wheel
• hand-positioning strategies
• driving simulator

Notes

^1. Email: [email protected]

^2. Email: [email protected]

^3. Email: [email protected]

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported financially by the International Campus on Safety and Inter-modality in Transportation, the Nord/Pas-de-Calais Region, the European Community, the Regional Delegation for Research and Technology, the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, the French National Research Agency and the National Centre for Scientific Research. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of these institutions, in addition to all partners of the VolHand project: Lille University Hospital, Hopale Foundation for Disabled, GIPSA-LAB of Grenoble University, LIVIC, LESCOT and LEMCO laboratories in IFSTTAR and JTEKT Corporation.