Steering Wheel Aftermarket Rhinestone Emblem Projectile Injury in a Motor Vehicle Collision: A Case Report.

Motor vehicle collisions are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality within the United States. Safety devices such as seatbelts and airbags have significantly reduced mortality rates for drivers. Some drivers personalize their vehicles with inexpensive items that may cause significant injury during vehicular collisions. We present a case of a face and neck penetrating injury from a metal aftermarket rhinestone emblem attached to the steering wheel during a motor vehicle collision. A 43-year-old female was involved in an accident where the airbag had deployed and projected two pieces of the metal emblem at her face and neck. The fragment in the neck was removed at the bedside, while that in the face required removal in the operating room. She recovered well postoperatively and was discharged the same day. This case highlights the potential for the dangers caused by aftermarket rhinestone emblems on steering wheels. We recommend that increased national advisories and legislative actions be considered to limit the use of these emblems.

Interrelatedness of steering and lateral position parameters: Recommendations for the assessment of driving performance.

INTRODUCTION: Loss of attention leads to less steady driving within the lane and is one of the main causes of road accidents. To improve road safety, vehicle-based parameters such as steering wheel angle and lateral position are used to objectively assess driving performance, especially in monotonous driving tasks. METHOD: The present driving simulator study investigated the extent to which eight commonly used parameters are independent indicators of driving performance. Fifteen participants undertook a monotonous highway driving task for 1 h. Four steering angle parameters were examined: average steering angle (ASA), standard deviation of steering angle (SDSA), steering angle range (SAR), and steering reversal rate (SRR); as well as four lateral position parameters: mean lateral position (MLP), standard deviation of lateral position (SDLP), lateral position range (LPR), and the out-of-lane duration. Measurements were averaged across 2-minute epochs. Repeated measures correlation analysis evaluated the similarity between each parameter, and the variance inflation factor test evaluated the multicollinearity of all the parameters. RESULTS: The results demonstrated that some parameters are highly correlated and should not be used together to assess driving performance. It is recommended that the optimal combination is ASA and SAR to assess steering angle, and SDLP and out-of-lane to assess lateral position. Out-of-lane, as a factor directly contributing to road safety, is recommended because it has the least correlation with other parameters. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: If implemented, these recommendations may improve the assessment of driving performance in future studies.

An Admittance Control Method Based on Parameters Fuzzification for Humanoid Steering Wheel Manipulation.

Developing a human bionic manipulator to achieve certain humanoid behavioral skills is a rising problem. Enabling robots to operate the steering wheel to drive the vehicle is a challenging task. To address the problem, this work designs a novel 7-DOF (degree of freedom) humanoid manipulator based on the arm structure of human bionics. The 3-2-2 structural arrangement of the motors and the structural modifications at the wrist allow the manipulator to act more similar to a man. Meanwhile, to manipulate the steering wheel stably and compliantly, an admittance control approach is firstly applied for this case. Considering that the system parameters vary in configuration, we further introduce parameter fuzzification for admittance control. Designed simulations were carried out in Coppeliasim to verify the proposed control approach. As the result shows, the improved method could realize compliant force control under extreme configurations. It demonstrates that the humanoid manipulator can twist the steering wheel stably even in extreme configurations. It is the first exploration to operate a steering wheel similar to a human with a manipulator by using admittance control.

Mapping Grip Force Characteristics in the Measurement of Stress in Driving.

Reducing drivers' stress can potentially increase road safety. However, state-of-the-art physiological stress indices are intrusive and limited by long time lags. Grip force is an innovative index of stress that is transparent to the user and, according to our previous findings, requires a two- to five-second time window. The aim of this study was to map the various parameters affecting the relationship between grip force and stress during driving tasks. Two stressors were used: the driving mode and the distance from the vehicle to a crossing pedestrian. Thirty-nine participants performed a driving task during either remote driving or simulated driving. A pedestrian dummy crossed the road without warning at two distances. The grip force on the steering wheel and the skin conductance response were both measured. Various model parameters were explored, including time window parameters, calculation types, and steering wheel surfaces for the grip force measurements. The significant and most powerful models were identified. These findings may aid in the development of car safety systems that incorporate continuous measurements of stress.

Study on the Maximum Safe Instantaneous Input of the Steering Wheel against Rollover for Trucks on Horizontal Curves.

Truck rollover crashes on horizontal curves have been recognized as one of the most serious types of crashes. Driver's instantaneous emergency steering maneuvers (DIESM) play an important role in truck rollover crashes, but have not received much attention. In the present study, the radius of curvature of the actual vehicle travel path (AVTP) under DIESM was calculated based on the transient bicycle model. Rollover margins were used to evaluate the truck-rollover potential under DIESM. To calculate rollover margins, the lateral acceleration under DIESM was calculated based on the radius of the curvature of the AVTP. A rollover threshold formula was introduced to calculate vehicle's rollover thresholds by distinguishing two turning conditions. According to rollover margins, the maximum safe instantaneous input of the steering wheel against rollover for trucks was obtained. Moreover, theoretical results were verified by computer simulation. Results showed: (1) The maximum safe instantaneous inputs of the steering wheel were 259°, 212°, 182°, 162°and 147°, respectively, at speeds of 60 km/h, 70 km/h, 80 km, 90 km and 100 km when the superelevation rate was 0, and (2) superelevation significantly affected truck-rollover potential; the worst turning condition was turning from the inside to the outside of the curve. Due to the consideration of the wheelbase, the centroid position, the tire's cornering stiffness and the suspension roll gain, the prediction results were more accurate.

Design of Smart Steering Wheel for Unobtrusive Health and Drowsiness Monitoring.

This article describes the design of a smart steering wheel intended for use in unobtrusive health and drowsiness monitoring. The aging population, cardiovascular disease, personalized medicine, and driver fatigue were significant motivations for developing a monitoring platform in cars because people spent much time in cars. The purpose was to create a unique, comprehensive monitoring system for the driver. The crucial parameters in health or drowsiness monitoring, such as heart rate, heart rate variability, and blood oxygenation, are measured by an electrocardiograph and oximeter integrated into the steering wheel. In addition, an inertial unit was integrated into the steering wheel to record and analyze the movement patterns performed by the driver while driving. The developed steering wheel was tested under laboratory and real-life conditions. The measured signals were verified by commercial devices to confirm data correctness and accuracy. The resulting signals show the applicability of the developed platform in further detecting specific cardiovascular diseases (especially atrial fibrillation) and drowsiness.

Grip Force on Steering Wheel as a Measure of Stress.

Driver performance is crucial for road safety. There is a relationship between performance and stress such that too high or too low stress levels (usually characterized by stressful or careless driving, respectively) impair driving quality. Therefore, monitoring stress levels can improve the overall performance of drivers by providing either an alert or intervention when stress levels are sub-optimal. Commonly used stress measures suffer from several shortcomings, such as time delays in indication and invasiveness of sensors. Grip force is a relatively new measure that shows promising results in measuring stress during psychomotor tasks. In driving, grip force sensor is non-invasive and transparent to the end user as drivers must continuously grip the steering wheel. The aim of the current research is to examine whether grip force can be used as a useful measure of stress in driving tasks. Twenty-one participants took part in a field experiment in which they were required to brake the vehicle in various intensities. The effects of the braking intensity on grip force, heart rate, and heart rate variability were analyzed. The results indicate a significant correlation between these three parameters. These results provide initial evidence that grip force can be used to measure stress in driving tasks. These findings may have several applications in the field of stress and driving research as well as in the vehicle safety domain.

Advantages of training with an adaptive driving device on a driving simulator compared to training only on the road.

PURPOSE: To compare the advantages of training on a driving simulator versus on the road, when learning to drive with new assistive technologies (AT) in individuals with motor impairments. METHOD: An experimental group (EXP = 16) that trained on a driving simulator was compared to a comparison group (CMP = 16) that received training only on the road. A post-training road test assessed driving performance. Analysis included proportion of participants who successfully completed the on-road driving test, number of training sessions, level of satisfaction, simulator sickness, advantages and discomforts. RESULTS: EXP and CMP were comparable for age (48 ± 17 years), sex (13 M, 3 F), and AT (3 steering wheel knobs with integrated switches, 4 left accelerators, 9 hand controls and steering wheel knobs). No significant difference was observed between groups in the proportion of participants who were found to be fit to drive (EXP: 9/16; CMP: 13/16; p = 0.126) or in the number of sessions completed (EXP: 4.3; CMP: 3.2; p = 0.061). For 6 of the 9 satisfaction variables, participants reported being satisfied/very satisfied with training on a simulator with driving assistive technologies 76% to 100% of the time. EXP was satisfied to have been able to use simulator sessions before going on the road (100%). Participants determined to be fit to drive on an on-road test following simulator training showed no significant difficulty continuing with the training. EXP reported temporary discomfort on the simulator during the initial session (88%). CONCLUSION: Simulators provide some advantages for training drivers with adaptive aids in a safe context.IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATIONAmong individuals with motor impairments who used to drive: All participants reported a high level of satisfaction training on the simulator with assistive technologies.The simulator proved to be an interesting tool for initiating training with new driving AT in a safe environment at no cost to individuals.The few discomforts reported during the first session resolved over time when participants continued with the driving simulator protocol.Occupational therapists noticed that the difficulties observed on the simulator were the same as those observed during on-road testing.The simulator allowed participants to begin to learn how to operate a vehicle with new assistive technology in a safe context.

Measurement data obtained by an instrumented steering wheel for driver model development.

The data article presents the data acquired by an Instrumented Steering Wheel, able to measure the three force components and the three moment components applied by each of the two driver hands on an Instrumented Steering Wheel (ISW). Additionally, the ISW senses the grip forces at each hand. In order to simulate emergency manoeuvres in a safe environment, a test track with a kick plate is used. Nine different drivers pass over the kick plate six times each. The drivers need to make an action on the steering wheel to counteract the lateral disturbance and recover the straight desired path. The vehicle has been instrumented with an ISW and an inertial measuring unit. Data acquired by the two sensors have been synchronized and analysed. The force components due to mass properties of the ISW have been compensated in a proper way, to highlight the loads exerted only by the driver hands. In the present data article, the data acquired during the described kick-plate test are reported for one driver during a single test. Discussion and conclusion have been presented in [1]. Data are provided in Matlab environment. Videos are provided to show how the manoeuvre occurs. The vehicle that was used for tests was modified with respect to the corresponding production vehicle. Data refer to the specific vehicle used in the tests that does not match with any vehicle produced by Toyota.

Muscle Contraction During Maneuvering Steering Wheel Using Surface Electromyograpyhy

@#Driving posture is one of the factors that need to be emphasized in ensuring driver’s comfort and to avoid road accidents and injuries. Meanwhile, fatigue has a strong relationship with comfortable posture and it contributes 15.7% of the total road accidents in Malaysia. Fatigue can reduce driving concentration and performances, thus increases the risk of road accidents and injuries. In order to determine the driver’s comfort, this study had measured muscle contraction using the objective measurement for comfortable and optimum driving posture angles. The equipment used for conducting objective measurement on 14 respondents was sEMG. The researcher had used sEMG equipment to evaluate muscles activities at upper extremities, which comprises of Biceps Brachii (BB), Deltoid Anterior (DA) and Trapezious Upper (TU) that were involved during controlling the car steering. It involves three driving postures parameters according to the fixed elbow and shoulder angles. The results from this study showed the BB muscle increased positively when turning the steering wheel to the right within 3 to 6 times value increased. Meanwhile, DA and TU muscles experience a contraction in the opposite direction with steering wheel turning action, which shows higher right side DA and TU muscle contraction when the driver turn the steering to the left with around 80% decrease for DA and within 60% to 80% decrease value for TU. BB muscle also shows an increasing value of muscle contraction with higher elbow flexion, meanwhile DA and TU muscles contraction also show an increment in-line with greater shoulder abduction. The results showed that posture B with elbow angle at 36° and shoulder angle at 134° are the most comfortable driving postures, hence the lowest muscle contraction value of 15.67μV (BB), 19.31μV (DA) and 12.36μV (TU) compared to the other two measured postures. The results of muscle contraction from this study is capable of assisting researchers and car manufacturers to understand the relationship of steering maneuvering when developing more comfortable and suitable vehicle’s driver seat compartment.

Evaluating secondary input devices to support an automotive touchscreen HMI: A cross-cultural simulator study conducted in the UK and China.

Touchscreen Human-Machine Interfaces (HMIs) are a well-established and popular choice to provide the primary control interface between driver and vehicle, yet inherently demand some visual attention. Employing a secondary device with the touchscreen may reduce the demand but there is some debate about which device is most suitable, with current manufacturers favouring different solutions and applying these internationally. We present an empirical driving simulator study, conducted in the UK and China, in which 48 participants undertook typical in-vehicle tasks utilising either a touchscreen, rotary-controller, steering-wheel-controls or touchpad. In both the UK and China, the touchscreen was the most preferred/least demanding to use, and the touchpad least preferred/most demanding, whereas the rotary-controller was generally favoured by UK drivers and steering-wheel-controls were more popular in China. Chinese drivers were more excited by the novelty of the technology, and spent more time attending to the devices while driving, leading to an increase in off-road glance time and a corresponding detriment to vehicle control. Even so, Chinese drivers rated devices as easier-to-use while driving, and felt that they interfered less with their driving performance, compared to their UK counterparts. Results suggest that the most effective solution (to maximise performance/acceptance, while minimising visual demand) is to maintain the touchscreen as the primary control interface (e.g. for top-level tasks), and supplement this with a secondary device that is only enabled for certain actions; moreover, different devices may be employed in different cultural markets. Further work is required to explore these recommendations in greater depth (e.g. during extended or real-world testing), and to validate the findings and approach in other cultural contexts.

A Rare Case of Complex Carpal Injury: Divergent Trapezium-Trapezoid Fracture Dislocation.

Background Divergent trapezium-trapezoid fracture dislocation is a rare and complex injury. The authors present an unusual case of dislocation of the trapezium-trapezoid complex with scaphoid fracture. Case Description A 25-year-old man suffered a road traffic accident leading to complex carpal injury due to axial and rotation forces (steer wheel injury) on the left wrist. X-rays and computed tomographic (CT) scan were done showing trapezium-trapezoid dissociation with fracture of distal pole of scaphoid and ulna styloid. The second metacarpal base was fractured with many ligamentous injuries in the wrist. Methods Volar flexor carpi radialis (FCR) approach was used to reduce and fix scaphoid fracture with 2.7-mm cannulated screw. Dorsal approach was used to fix fracture of second metacarpal base and perform reduction in trapezium-trapezoid complex with help of 0.8-mm K-wires, and suspension wiring of first to second and second to third metacarpal was done using 1.5-mm K-wires. The transverse flexor retinaculum (TFR) in this case was avulsed. Discussion The divergent trapezium-trapezoid joint with scaphoid fracture is not described in the literature yet. The authors implicate steering wheel injury pattern for such complex carpal fracture dislocations. CT scan is imperative to diagnose and plan treatment of such fracture morphology. Early fracture reduction and stabilization of carpal dislocations are essential for proper functioning of wrist.

Unobtrusive Vital Sign Monitoring in Automotive Environments-A Review.

This review provides an overview of unobtrusive monitoring techniques that could be used to monitor some of the human vital signs (i.e., heart activity, breathing activity, temperature and potentially oxygen saturation) in a car seat. It will be shown that many techniques actually measure mechanical displacement, either on the body surface and/or inside the body. However, there are also techniques like capacitive electrocardiogram or bioimpedance that reflect electrical activity or passive electrical properties or thermal properties (infrared thermography). In addition, photopleythysmographic methods depend on optical properties (like scattering and absorption) of biological tissues and-mainly-blood. As all unobtrusive sensing modalities are always fragile and at risk of being contaminated by disturbances (like motion, rapidly changing environmental conditions, triboelectricity), the scope of the paper includes a survey on redundant sensor arrangements. Finally, this review also provides an overview of automotive demonstrators for vital sign monitoring.

The Effect Of Grasping The Steering Wheel While Positioning The Shoulder Closer To The Body

@#Discomfort and pain issue at the body part are common complaints reported by car drivers. It is due to driving task require physical demands and need to maintain and adapt several postures in a constrained space while controlling the car. Hence, this study aims to determine the pattern of shoulder activation muscle consisting of the Trapezius muscle in two different driving posture. Respondents were required to grasp the steering wheel at 8 and 4 hand position. The Surface Electromyography was used to get the reading for left muscle’s Trapezius Descendent (TD) at two different positions; i) closest distant from steering wheel and ii) far distant from the steering wheel. Then, Temporal Analysis was used to evaluate the pattern of the driving action. From the experiment, it shows the different value of muscle activation occurred while driving according to turning action. The far seated position depicted greater activation on driving action compared to the closer seated to the steering wheel. In conclusion, the driving posture effects the activation of shoulder and arm’s muscles as early as after 20 seconds of driving activity. Hence, choosing the correct driving posture allowed a comfortable driving environment for the driver.

Deltoid Anterior Contraction In Maneuvering The Steering Wheel

@#While driving, a driver is required to control the steering wheel to change direction. The driver’s muscles of the upper limbs and shoulders are involved in such a task. Therefore, an assessment of the driver’s physiology according to certain condition is necessary to improve driving comfort and safety. This study aims to investigate the driver’s Deltoid Anterior (DA) muscle activity while operating the steering wheel. Eleven test subjects were recruited for an experiment using a car simulator. They were required to remain in the car seat and perform the task of steering the wheel. Surface electromyography (SEMG) was used to record each subject’s muscle contraction while turning the steering wheel to the right and left by several degrees. According to the findings, 45 degrees turning recorded the highest Root mean Square (RMS) value for DA. In addition, DA muscle activation increased with more degrees turning.

Mirage events & driver haptic steering alerts in a motion-base driving simulator: A method for selecting an optimal HMI.

This paper describes a new method, a 'mirage scenario,' to support formative evaluation of driver alerting or warning displays for manual and automated driving. This method provides driving contexts (e.g., various Times-To-Collision (TTCs) to a lead vehicle) briefly presented and then removed. In the present study, during each mirage event, a haptic steering display was evaluated. This haptic display indicated a steering response may be initiated to drive around an obstacle ahead. A motion-base simulator was used in a 32-participant study to present vehicle motion cues similar to the actual application. Surprise was neither present nor of concern, as it would be for a summative evaluation of a forward collision warning system. Furthermore, no collision avoidance maneuvers were performed, thereby reducing the risk of simulator sickness. This paper illustrates the mirage scenario procedures, the rating methods and definitions used with the mirage scenario, and analysis of the ratings obtained, together with a multi-attribute utility theory (MAUT) approach to evaluate and select among alternative designs for future summative evaluation.

Comparing multiple correspondence and principal component analyses with biomechanical signals. Example with turning the steering wheel.

The purpose of this article is to compare Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and a much less used method, i.e. MCA (Multiple Correspondence Analysis) with data being first changed into membership values to fuzzy space windows. For such a comparison, data from an experimental study about turning the steering wheel is used. In a didactic perspective, this article only considers one multidimensional signal with 5 components: 3 linked to the steering wheel angle and hand positions and 2 to hand effort variables. A discussion weighs out the pros and the cons of both methods with criteria such as the possibility to show complex relational phenomena, the analysis/computing time or the information loss inherent to the averaging stage (in the perspective to analyze several hundreds of large multidimensional signals).

Online Detection of Driver Fatigue Using Steering Wheel Angles for Real Driving Conditions.

This paper presents a drowsiness on-line detection system for monitoring driver fatigue level under real driving conditions, based on the data of steering wheel angles (SWA) collected from sensors mounted on the steering lever. The proposed system firstly extracts approximate entropy (ApEn)featuresfromfixedslidingwindowsonreal-timesteeringwheelanglestimeseries. Afterthat, this system linearizes the ApEn features series through an adaptive piecewise linear fitting using a given deviation. Then, the detection system calculates the warping distance between the linear features series of the sample data. Finally, this system uses the warping distance to determine the drowsiness state of the driver according to a designed binary decision classifier. The experimental data were collected from 14.68 h driving under real road conditions, including two fatigue levels: "wake" and "drowsy". The results show that the proposed system is capable of working online with an average 78.01% accuracy, 29.35% false detections of the "awake" state, and 15.15% false detections of the "drowsy" state. The results also confirm that the proposed method based on SWA signal is valuable for applications in preventing traffic accidents caused by driver fatigue.

Differential Functionality of Right and Left Parietal Activity in Controlling a Motor Vehicle.

Driving a motor vehicle is an inherently complex task that requires robust control to avoid catastrophic accidents. Drivers must maintain their vehicle in the middle of the travel lane to avoid high speed collisions with other traffic. Interestingly, while a vehicle's lane deviation (LD) is critical, studies have demonstrated that heading error (HE) is one of the primary variables drivers use to determine a steering response, which directly controls the position of the vehicle in the lane. In this study, we examined how the brain represents the dichotomy between control/response parameters (heading, reaction time (RT), and steering wheel corrections) and task-critical parameters (LD). Specifically, we examined electroencephalography (EEG) alpha band power (8-13 Hz) from estimated sources in right and left parietal regions, and related this activity to four metrics of driving performance. Our results demonstrate differential task involvement between the two hemispheres: right parietal activity was most closely related to LD, whereas left parietal activity was most closely related to HE, RT and steering responses. Furthermore, HE, RT and steering wheel corrections increased over the duration of the experiment while LD did not. Collectively, our results suggest that the brain uses differential monitoring and control strategies in the right and left parietal regions to control a motor vehicle. Our results suggest that the regulation of this control changes over time while maintaining critical task performance. These results are interpreted in two complementary theoretical frameworks: the uncontrolled manifold and compensatory control theories. The central tenet of these frameworks permits performance variability in parameters (i.e., HE, RT and steering) so far as it does not interfere with critical task execution (i.e., LD). Our results extend the existing research by demonstrating potential neural substrates for this phenomenon which may serve as potential targets for brain-computer interfaces that predict poor driving performance.

Impacts to the chest of PMHSs - Influence of impact location and load distribution on chest response.

The chest response of the human body has been studied for several load conditions, but is not well known in the case of steering wheel rim-to-chest impact in heavy goods vehicle frontal collisions. The aim of this study was to determine the response of the human chest in a set of simulated steering wheel impacts. PMHS tests were carried out and analysed. The steering wheel load pattern was represented by a rigid pendulum with a straight bar-shaped front. A crash test dummy chest calibration pendulum was utilised for comparison. In this study, a set of rigid bar impacts were directed at various heights of the chest, spanning approximately 120mm around the fourth intercostal space. The impact energy was set below a level estimated to cause rib fracture. The analysed results consist of responses, evaluated with respect to differences in the impacting shape and impact heights on compression and viscous criteria chest injury responses. The results showed that the bar impacts consistently produced lesser scaled chest compressions than the hub; the Middle bar responses were around 90% of the hub responses. A superior bar impact provided lesser chest compression; the average response was 86% of the Middle bar response. For inferior bar impacts, the chest compression response was 116% of the chest compression in the middle. The damping properties of the chest caused the compression to decrease in the high speed bar impacts to 88% of that in low speed impacts. From the analysis it could be concluded that the bar impact shape provides lower chest criteria responses compared to the hub. Further, the bar responses are dependent on the impact location of the chest. Inertial and viscous effects of the upper body affect the responses. The results can be used to assess the responses of human substitutes such as anthropomorphic test devices and finite element human body models, which will benefit the development process of heavy goods vehicle safety systems.