A Preliminary Study for Exploring High-speed Train Driver Fatigue Using Eye-gaze Cue

Abstract

Abstract-High-speed railway is seeking for a higher safety level than other public transports because of more passengers and higher speed. However, sleepiness and fatigue occur more frequently for train drivers due to longer operation time and irregular shift schedule. In the paper, we focus on study the particularity of train drivers' fatigue under the environment of high-speed railway. We observed operation performance and evaluated the degree of fatigue using train drivers' visual characteristics, while they conducted various tasks on high-speed railway driver simulator. By analyzing self-report sleepiness scales, detection distance and eye movement data, we found that pupil diameter, blink time and fixation percentage of fatigue drivers were significantly different from that of sober drivers. Meanwhile, we revealed obvious individual difference of train drivers and proposed a personalized database for train drivers' fatigue identification. These quantitative results can be used as a preliminary study for designing human-train interface of highspeed railway.