Muscle fatigue evaluation method of driver at long time driving based on blood lactate level increase

Abstract

There are many things to consider about the fatigue of drivers during long time driving, such as the driver’s driving posture. In order to confirm the degree of fatigue, many studies have been conducted on methods of measuring fatigue during driving. However, it takes time and effort. So, the simple measurement method was needed. Therefore, we focused on the blood lactate value used as a physical fatigue evaluation characteristic mainly for muscles. In this study, we defined the difference in blood lactate levels before and after driving as an increase amount and proposed objective evaluation of muscle fatigue. At first, we verified whether blood lactate levels changed by driving experiments for long time. Then, we verified whether there was a difference in the results of the proposed fatigue evaluation method with or without lumbar support. From these results, we showed that the blood lactate value evaluation method is effective for the muscle fatigue evaluation of the driver for a long time driving.

Keywords

• blood lactate level increase
• driving fatigue
• driving posture change
• lumbar support
• bioinstrumentation