Abstract:

Long-distance heavy truck drivers are prone to fatigue when driving on highways, which threatens driving safety. To explore the characteristics and patterns of fatigue in heavy truck drivers during continuous highway driving, an on-road driving experiment was conducted. The drivers' behavior and eye movement indicators were recorded using cameras and an eye-tracking device. The analysis was carried out through function fitting, driver behavior characteristic analysis, and the construction of a Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) model. The results indicate that the safe threshold for continuous driving time for truck drivers is between 3.6 and 3.7 hours. In terms of Passive Task-related Fatigue, based on average blink duration, drivers experience a sense of fatigue 5 to 15 minutes before they exhibit active fatigue intervention behaviors 48.69% of the time. The frequency of checking the rearview mirror and engaging in non-driving-related small actions correlates with average blink duration. Using these behaviors as substitutes for eye movement indicators, the detection rate of passive fatigue during the driving process can reach 80.2%. The findings can provide a reference for video monitoring and warning systems for heavy truck driver fatigue, and contribute to enhancing the safety of truck driving.

Key words: traffic safety, driving fatigue, multilayer perceptron, continuous driving, heavy trucks, task-related fatigue