Real Driver Research Articles

Impact of road environment on drivers’ behaviors in dilemma zone: Application of agent-based simulation

At a signalized intersection, there exists an area where drivers become indecisive as to either stop their car or proceed through when the traffic signal turns yellow. This point, called a dilemma zone, has remained a safety concern for drivers due to the great possibility of a rear-end or right-angle crash occurring. In order to reduce the risk of car crashes at the dilemma zone, Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) recommended a dilemma zone model. The model, however, fails to provide precise calculations on the decision of drivers because it disregards the supplemental roadway information, such as whether a red light camera is present. Hence, the goal of this study was to incorporate such roadway environmental factors into a more realistic driver decision-making model for the dilemma zone. A driving simulator was used to determine the influence of roadway conditions on decision-making of real drivers. Following data collection, each driver's decision outcomes were implemented in an Agent-Based Simulation (ABS) so as to analyze behaviors under realistic road environments. The experimental results revealed that the proposed dilemma zone model was able to accurately predict the decisions of drivers. Specifically, the model confirmed the findings from the driving simulator study that the changes in the roadway environment reduced the number of red light violations at an intersection.

Underbelly injury based identification of the driver in a three-rider motorcycle accident.

This paper presents a three-rider motorcycle accident which took place in a suburb of Chongqing China. In the accident, the motorcycle impacted the terminal of a bridge footpath and led to two riders died and one rider injured. After the accident, one rider received injuries around the groin area including the underbelly area and the perineum area. Another rider suffered from injuries only on the perineum areas. In medico-legal judgments, injuries around the groin area also called groin injuries in victims of motorcycle accidents are usually regarded as "fuel tank injuries" which are commonly found in drivers. But, the injuries around the groin area are sometimes confused with the perineum injuries. Therefore, the perineum injuries are often wrongly reckoned as the "fuel tank injuries" and used to identify the drivers too. Actually, passengers can sometimes suffer from perineum injuries in many head-on impacting motorcycle accidents. It is of vital matters to understand the differences between groin injuries and perineum injuries so that the real driver who should be responsible for the accident can be recognized. In this paper, the three-rider motorcycle accident was presented and the injury information of the three riders was studied in order to distinguish the real driver from the riders. We consider that the groin injury has some differences with the perineum injury and the latter should not always be related to the driver especially in high-speed head-on impacting motorcycle accidents. In addition, the injury on underbelly areas is important to identify the driver.

Predistortion of Digital RF PWM Signals Considering Conditional Memory

The trend in transmitter systems is to move the digital domain closer towards the antenna using digital modulators and drivers to reduce circuit complexity and to save power. A common assumption made is that they are capable of generating ideal pulses and thus do not suffer from analog imperfections. But the output signals of real drivers for high frequency operation are not perfectly rectangular anymore, which leads to distortion lowering the signal quality. In this paper the general properties of high frequency digital driver circuits operating at 2.6 GHz are analyzed and the impact of the different effects is presented. The predistortion of such drivers in the context of digital discrete time RF PWM modulators is studied. It has been found that conventional sample based predistortion can only correct the driver nonlinearity from $-$ 29 dBc to $-$ 49 dBc for the example considered using a 40 MHz bandwidth signal at 2.6 GHz. Therefore a special predistortion scheme considering the impact of pulses adjacent to the other samples is proposed. The mitigation of effects due to the discrete time nature of the signal is considered and discussed in detail. The capabilities of the proposed predistortion scheme are verified by extensive simulations as well as by measurements. By applying the proposed predistortion concept the spectral quality can be further improved to $-$ 66 dBc. In addition different scenarios with limited resolution and a carrier frequency offset are analyzed.

Forced Localization of Cloud Services: Is Privacy the Real Driver?

Mistrust has become commonplace in international debates regarding regulation of cloud and other online services. There is an urgent need for greater clarity, and honesty, in international debates about data localization and data export controls. Forced data localization is not the only, and arguably not the best, strategy for securing data sovereignty.

Optimisation of nonlinear motion cueing algorithm based on genetic algorithm

Motion cueing algorithms (MCAs) are playing a significant role in driving simulators, aiming to deliver the most accurate human sensation to the simulator drivers compared with a real vehicle driver, without exceeding the physical limitations of the simulator. This paper provides the optimisation design of an MCA for a vehicle simulator, in order to find the most suitable washout algorithm parameters, while respecting all motion platform physical limitations, and minimising human perception error between real and simulator driver. One of the main limitations of the classical washout filters is that it is attuned by the worst-case scenario tuning method. This is based on trial and error, and is effected by driving and programmers experience, making this the most significant obstacle to full motion platform utilisation. This leads to inflexibility of the structure, production of false cues and makes the resulting simulator fail to suit all circumstances. In addition, the classical method does not take minimisation of human perception error and physical constraints into account. Production of motion cues and the impact of different parameters of classical washout filters on motion cues remain inaccessible for designers for this reason. The aim of this paper is to provide an optimisation method for tuning the MCA parameters, based on nonlinear filtering and genetic algorithms. This is done by taking vestibular sensation error into account between real and simulated cases, as well as main dynamic limitations, tilt coordination and correlation coefficient. Three additional compensatory linear blocks are integrated into the MCA, to be tuned in order to modify the performance of the filters successfully. The proposed optimised MCA is implemented in MATLAB/Simulink software packages. The results generated using the proposed method show increased performance in terms of human sensation, reference shape tracking and exploiting the platform more efficiently without reaching the motion limitations.

Prototype Implementation of Real Time CAN Driver for Distributed Embedded Applications

Prototype Implementation of Real Time CAN Driver for Distributed Embedded Applications

EFFECTS OF FATIGUE ON REAL-WORLD DRIVING IN DISEASED AND CONTROL PARTICIPANTS.

This study evaluated real world driver errors and sleepiness in 66 drivers with Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) and 34 matched controls (24 younger and 22 older). Driving errors and driver state were derived from analyses of video data from "black-box" event recorders. Sleep fragmentation data in OSA was derived from actigraphy for 15 days prior to beginning standard treatment (positive airway pressure, PAP) and 15 days after beginning PAP treatment. Prior to starting PAP, OSAs appeared sleepier than controls in general and particularly at intersections, while making safety errors following nights with high levels of fragmented sleep compared to matched controls. Adverse effects of sleep fragmentation during the pre-PAP phase were reduced post-PAP. Greater hours of PAP-use were associated with lower sleepiness and errors on the road. PAP-use was associated with a decrease in high sleep fragmented nights. Findings suggest reduction in acute sleepiness is unlikely to be the only mediating factor that explains the driving safety benefits of PAP in OSA.

Legal Drivers in Cyber Security

What are the real drivers for Cyber Security? Certainly not the Data Protection legislation, which while theoretically being enforceable with a fine of up to 500 000 GBP is rarely enforced in this way. Most breaches of that legislation go unnoticed, let alone invoke a sanction. Most businesses will retort that they are concerned about their reputation, but does the truth match the perception? This article explores the dangers of lack of security and what businesses can and do suffer as a result of lack of security. Criminal sanctions in the form of the Computer Misuse Act, 1990 are examined as is the civil fining regime of the Data Protection legislation. There is also the possibility under this latter data protection legislation for an aggrieved individual to claim damages, but as we see this also is a theoretical rather than a practical remedy. We examine the purely economic risk of "loss of reputation" as well as the special case of businesses falling under the remit of the Financial Conduct Authority. The article also examines the implications of lack of security in the Internet of things and whether there are legislative or other drivers to make the Internet of Things secure.

Analysis of Network Exit Functions for Various Urban Grid Network Configurations

Macroscopic networkwide traffic models have been used to study aggregate traffic behavior on urban networks and to design traffic control strategies. However, less attention has been given to their application in the study of street network design. This paper uses the network exit function (NEF) to analyze traffic performance on an abstract grid network of various street configurations. The NEF is an aggregate relationship between trip completion rate and the number of vehicles circulating in a network. Street configuration is a topic of interest in many cities, especially in the United States, where city planners are considering street network conversions. Three configurations are addressed here: two-way streets, two-way streets with prohibited left turns (TWL), and one-way streets. This work builds on previous studies by incorporating more realistic traffic dynamics with microsimulation software (VISSIM) with dynamic traffic assignment enabled to emulate better the behavior of real drivers. This work finds that NEFs of two-way networks generally are smaller than those of TWL and one-way networks because of reduced capacity at intersections. Comparison of TWL and one-way networks is more nuanced, as traffic performance on these networks depends on route choice. If vehicles are always routed through the path with the shortest travel time, TWL networks offer NEFs with higher trip completion rates; however, if vehicles spread themselves across multiple alternatives, one-way networks provide better results. TWL networks offer a better trade-off between distance traveled and capacity at intersections, and one-way networks offer more shortest-path routing choices between origin–destination pairs.

Internet Balkanization gathers pace: is privacy the real driver?

Internet Balkanization gathers pace: is privacy the real driver?

NGOs, States, and Donors Revisited: Still Too Close for Comfort?

Serious questions remain about the ability of NGOs to meet long-term transformative goals in their work for development and social justice. We investigate how, given their weak roots in civil society and the rising tide of technocracy that has swept through the world of foreign aid, most NGOs remain poorly placed to influence the real drivers of social change. However we also argue that NGOs can take advantage of their traditional strengths to build bridges between grassroots organizations and local and national-level structures and processes, applying their knowledge of local contexts to strengthen their roles in empowerment and social transformation.

Next Generation Sequencing. a Key in Search of Locks?

ABSTRACT Aim: Cancer treatment has rapidly evolved in the last decades. Research is mainly directed towards the development of targeted treatments based on individual patient and tumor characteristics. A major recent focus has been the use of sequencing tests that focus on targetable gene alterations. Comprehensive cancer genomic testing using Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology is a very fast and efficient tool which identifies a large number of alterations, some of which may prove to be an important aid in therapeutic decision-making. Many challenges exist in the transition of these technologies from research tool to clinical practice. We aimed to investigate the effectiveness of the current NGS technology as an aid in the oncologic treatment at our institution. Methods: We retrospectively evaluated a cohort of 75 cases of patients with solid tumors treated from Nov. 11 until Feb. 14, who had their tumors sent for a commercially available sequencing assay that utilizes clinical grade NGS. We analyzed all patients for the identification of targetable gene alterations, and whether this result led to a change in treatment and final outcome. Results: Sixty-six patients (88%) were eligible for our analysis (47% female). Sixty-two (94%) had an identifiable mutation, and 11 (17%) received treatment directed by the NGS result. Seven of these 11 patients (63%) had their tumor analyzed by specimens from metastatic sites. Only one patient had a significant tumor response, which was achieved after 2 months of directed treatment, with disease progression 4 months later. The median number of treatment lines prior to the NGS test was 3. Conclusions: Current technology already allows us to identify a large number of mutated genes in cancer specimens. However, most of those mutations are not yet drugable. Our results were somewhat disappointing, with less than 10% response among those few who could receive the directed therapy. However, it is important to note that ours was a heavily pretreated population, and that a significant number of the mutations identified might not be real drivers to the tumor growth. The results of our study suggest that the NGS test is still largely investigational, and that its use as a rescue tool for heavily pretreated patients remains questionable. Disclosure: All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.

Shadow Banking: The Money View

This paper presents an accounting framework for measuring the sources and uses of short-term funding in the global financial ecosystem. We introduce a dynamic map of global funding flows to show how dealer banks emerged as intermediaries between two types of asset managers: cash pools searching for safety via collateralized cash investments and levered portfolio managers searching for yield via funded securities portfolios and derivatives. We argue that the monetary aggregates (M0, M1, M2, etc.) and the Financial Accounts of the United States (formerly the Flow of Funds) do not adequately reflect the institutional realities of the modern financial ecosystem, and should be updated to allow policymakers to better analyze and monitor the shadow banking system and its potential contributions to financial instability. The monetary aggregates, used mainly to inform the aggregate demand management aspects of monetary policy, do not include the instruments that asset managers use as money, particularly repos. Asset managers’ money demand is not driven by transaction needs in the real economy but in the financial economy: in this sense, repo-based money dealing activities in the shadow banking system are about the provision of working capital for asset managers, much like real bills provided working capital for merchants and manufacturers in Bagehot’s world over 150 years ago. These developments should be systematically captured in a new set of Flow of Collateral, Flow of Risk and Flow of Eurodollar satellite accounts to supplement the Financial Accounts. The accounting framework presented with this paper also explains how the Federal Reserve’s reverse repo facility helps reduce interconnections within the financial system and how they could evolve into minimum liquidity requirements for shadow banks and a tool to control market-based credit cycles. The global macro drivers behind the secular rise of cash pools and leveraged portfolio managers in the asset management complex are identical with the real economy drivers behind the idea of secular stagnation. As such, one way to interpret shadow banking is as the financial economy reflection of real economy imbalances caused by excess global savings, slowing potential growth, and the rising share of corporate profits relative to wages in national income.

Driver assistance systems to improve active safety in the closed-loop system driver-vehicle-surroundings

This paper deals with the analysis of the closed–loop system consisting of driver, vehicle and the surroundings in critical driving situations. This study was geared towards analysing typical driver errors based upon driving situations registered frequently in accident statistics; this analysis should then be used for the development of assistance systems to optimize the driver's actions. The selected driving manoeuvres were simulated on the Daimler–Benz driving simulator with real drivers in order to reveal typical errors. The results of these tests formed the basis for the development of driver assistance systems. The results of the efficiency and acceptance studies concerning the braking and steering assistance developed by Daimler–Benz are presented here.

Optimizing a Start-Stop Controller Using Policy Search

We applied a policy search algorithm to the problem of optimizing a start-stop controller—a controller used in a car to turn off the vehicle’s engine, and thus save energy, when the vehicle comes to a temporary halt. We were able to improve the existing policy by approximately 12% using real driver trace data. We also experimented with using multiple policies, and found that doing so could lead to a further 8% improvement if we could determine which policy to apply at each stop. The driver’s behaviors before stopping were found to be uncorrelated with the policy that performed best; however, further experimentation showed that the driver’s behavior during the stop may be more useful, suggesting a useful direction for adding complexity to the underlying start-stop policy.

Surgical inpatient satisfaction: What are the real drivers?

Inpatient satisfaction is a key element of hospital pay-for-performance programs. Communication and pain management are known to influence results, but additional factors may affect satisfaction scores. We tested the hypothesis that patient factors and outcome parameters not considered previously are clinically important drivers of inpatient satisfaction. Medical records were reviewed for 1,340 surgical patients who returned nationally standardized inpatient satisfaction questionnaires. These patients were managed by 41 surgeons in seven specialties at two academic medical centers. Thirty-two parameters based on the patient, surgeon, outcomes, and survey were measured. Univariate and multivariable analyses were performed. Inpatients rated their overall experience favorably 75.7% of the time. Less-satisfied patients were more likely to be female, younger, less ill, taking outpatient narcotics, and admitted via the emergency department (all P < .02). Less-satisfied patients also were more likely to have unresected cancer (P < .001) or a postoperative complication (P < .001). The most relevant independent predictors of dissatisfaction in multivariable analyses were younger age, admission via the emergency department, preoperative narcotic use, lesser severity of illness, unresected cancer, and postoperative morbidity (all P < .01). Several patient factors, expectations of patients with cancer, and postoperative complications are important and clinically relevant drivers of surgical inpatient satisfaction. Programs to manage expectations of cancer patient expectations and decrease postoperative morbidity should improve surgical inpatient satisfaction. Further efforts to risk-adjust patient satisfaction scores should be undertaken.

Optimal fuzzy control system design for car-following behaviour based on the driver–vehicle unit online delays in a real traffic flow

Promoting safety and comfort in driving and reducing the traffic, the pollution and the energy consumption are the main purposes of using many control systems in different driving processes. Car following is the dominant and effective behaviour in traffic flow, the automatization of which is crucial to achieving the aforementioned goals. In this paper, a novel optimal fuzzy control system is designed so that the follower vehicle maintains a safe distance from the vehicle in front of it in a traffic queue with a reduction in the energy consumption. This controller is superior in that it considers the online delays in the reaction of the driver–vehicle unit in the design. The instantaneous delay is estimated using the stimulus–reaction idea based on a real car-following data set. Tuning the controller is achieved by using the linear quadratic regulator gains in the fuzzy scaling gains. Considering the reaction delay enables the controller to be used in an advanced driver assistance system to obtain simultaneously a higher degree of safety, greater energy saving and more freedom for the driver. Fewer errors and more optimality in the results demonstrated the better performance of the proposed control system in comparison with those of a real driver and other controllers.

The Optimality of the Handbrake Cornering Technique

The paper investigates the optimality of the handbrake cornering, a strategy widespread among rally drivers. Nonlinear optimal control techniques are used to mimic real driver behavior. A proper yet simple cost function is devised to induce the virtual optimal driver to control the car at its physical limits while using the handbrake technique. The optimal solution is validated against experimental data by a professional rally driver performing the handbrake technique on a loose off-road surface. The effects of road surface, inertial properties, center of mass position, and friction coefficient are analyzed to highlight that the optimality of the maneuver does not depend on the particular vehicle data set used. It turns out that the handbrake maneuvering corresponds to the minimum time and minimum (lateral) space strategy on a tight hairpin corner. The results contribute to the understanding of one of the so-called aggressive driving techniques.

Empty gestures? A review of the discourses of ‘localism’ from the practitioner’s perspective

Little has been written from the practitioner’s perspective about the discourses of localism permeating local planning practice. Even less has been written about the tangible local economic outputs of such planning initiatives legislated through the Localism Act (House of Commons, 2011). As such, this paper fills a gap by reviewing the practicalities of the neighbourhood development plan (NDP) process; a localism tool heralded as a mechanism to allow local communities to choose where they want new homes, shops and offices to be built. Reflecting on the 858 NDPs currently underway across England and Wales, the real drivers, practicalities and implications of this new policy layer are critically analysed from the practitioner’s perspective. The paper concludes that behind the rhetoric of the neighbourhood planning discourse is a covert political objective of enabling local economic development by facilitating private sector-led growth (through ensuring fewer local objections to development proposals and more planning approvals). However, quite the opposite, the paper reveals a dangerously misplaced emphasis on empowering localities through NDPs. This is because in reality experimental NDPs have a limited and uneven scope and at times may be inflammatory, increasing anti-development sentiments. Instead, it is proposed that an adjusted policy focus is adopted which facilitates genuine community engagement with the local development planning process.

Driver fatigue and drowsiness monitoring system with embedded electrocardiogram sensor on steering wheel

Real time driver health condition monitoring system with drowsiness alertness was proposed. A new embedded electrocardiogram (ECG) sensor with electrically conductive fabric electrodes on the steering wheel of a car was designed to monitor the driver's health condition. The ECG signals were measured at a sampling rate of 100 Hz from the driver's palms as they stay on a pair of conductive fabric electrodes located on the steering wheel. Practical tests were conducted using an embedded ECG sensor with a wireless sensor node, and their performance was assessed under non-stop 2 h driving test. The ECG signals were measured and transmitted wirelessly to a base station connected to a server PC in personal area network environment. The driver's health condition such as the normal, fatigued and drowsy states was analysed by evaluating the heart rate variability in the time and frequency domains.