Online Detection of Driver Fatigue Based on Reaction Time: Designing a Monitoring and Early-Warning System

Fatigue affects a driver’s ability to control a vehicle and react to events. The goal of this research was to develop an online driving fatigue monitoring and early-warning system. Data reporting on an electroencephalograph signal and driver reaction time were collected from 20 simulation experiments. Lane departure images were collected from five road experiments. A support vector machine was used to divide driver mental state into three levels. The sobel edge operator was applied to search the edge of the lane line. The results show that the average driver reaction time increases when there is serious driving fatigue. Moreover, driver ability sharply declines, causing the vehicle to sway from side to side. This study involved installing and testing an easily-mounted driving fatigue monitoring and early-warning system. Road tests demonstrated that the system could realize all the required functions, including being able to detect fatigue quickly and run steadily.