Machine learning model for aberrant driving behaviour prediction using heart rate variability: a pilot study involving highway bus drivers

Abstract

Objectives. Current approaches via physiological features detecting aberrant driving behaviour (ADB), including speeding, abrupt steering, hard braking and aggressive acceleration, are developing. This study proposes using machine learning approaches incorporating heart rate variability (HRV) parameters to predict ADB occurrence. Methods. Naturalistic driving data of 10 highway bus drivers in Taiwan from their daily routes were collected for 4 consecutive days. Their driving behaviours and physiological data during a driving task were determined using a navigation mobile application and heart rate watch. Participants’ self-reported data on sleep, driving-related experience, open-source data on weather and the traffic congestion level were obtained. Five machine learning models – logistic regression, random forest, naive Bayes, support vector machine and gated recurrent unit (GRU) – were employed to predict ADBs. Results. Most drivers with ADB had low sleep efficiency (≤80%), with significantly higher scores in driver behaviour questionnaire subcategories of lapses and errors and in the Karolinska sleepiness scale than those without ADBs. Moreover, HRV parameters were significantly different between baseline and pre-ADB event measurements. GRU had the highest accuracy (81.16–84.22%). Conclusions. Sleep deficit may be related to the increased fatigue level and ADB occurrence predicted from HRV-based models among bus drivers.

KEYWORDS:

• aberrant driving behaviour
• driver behaviour questionnaire
• gated recurrent unit
• heart rate variability
• Karolinska sleepiness scale

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank TRADE-VAN Information Services and ZoeTek company for providing technical assistance. The funder had no role in the study design, data collection, analysis or writing of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10803548.2022.2135281.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan [MOST 110–2634–F-002–049].