Abstract
A study is carried out to investigate the effects of driving environment on the mental workload of train drivers while driving. The driving task is performed under three environmental conditions, i.e. clear sunny day, rainy day and rainy night driving. Electroencephalography (EEG) measurements are recorded from the Fz and Pz channels of fifteen male subjects aged between 24 to 48 years old. The mean alpha power is monitored as a function of time as this signal reflects the variations in mental workload of the drivers. The results exhibit that the signal pattern for rainy night driving condition is significantly different compared to others. This finding indicates that the train drivers show an increase in mental workload after six minutes of driving under rainy night condition. The results demonstrate a percentage difference in mean alpha power of 37% between daytime and rainy night driving conditions during the early periods of driving. This indicates that the mental workload of train drivers tends to be low with an increased level of sleepiness under such conditions, which are signs of low vigilance.
Highlights
Having an appropriate level of mental workload is important for human operators due to the fact that each individual is expected to perform specific tasks according to expectations
The results show that the mean alpha power increases slightly with time for Session 2, whereas the mean alpha power begins to decrease after the second time interval for Session 3
The mental workload of train drivers is investigated under three driving conditions, namely, clear sunny day, rainy day and rainy night driving
Summary
Having an appropriate level of mental workload is important for human operators due to the fact that each individual is expected to perform specific tasks according to expectations. According to Hwang et al [1], the performance indicator for most human operators will degrade if the mental workload is either too high or too low. Human operators may suffer from delays in information processing and they may be unable to respond to the incoming information when the capacity to process information exceeds the maximum limit [2]. It is stated that human operators will become bored with an increased tendency to make mistakes when their mental workload is significantly lower than the appropriate level. Almost 75% of all train accidents can be associated to human error [3].
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