Development of driving fatigue strain index to analyze risk levels of driving activity

Driving activity has become more important as this medium being practically, faster and cheaper in connecting human from one to other places. However, in some occurrences driving activity can cause disaster or death to human in daily life as they get fatigued while driving. Driving fatigue is one of the top contributor to the road crashes. Therefore this study is to develop a driving fatigue strain index (DFSI), to quantify the risk levels caused by driving activity, and to propose an appropriate solution in minimizing the number of road accidents caused by the driving fatigue. The development of DFSI is based on risk factors associated with driving activity such as muscle activity, heart rate, hand grip force, seat pressure distribution, whole-body vibration, and driving duration. All risk factors are assigned with multipliers, and the DFSI is the output or result of those multipliers. The development of DFSI is essential to analyze the risk factors that would contribute significantly to discomfort and fatigue associated with driving. Besides, in the future this index will have a capability to recommend alternative solutions to minimize fatigue while driving.