Analysis of drivers’ characteristic driving operations based on combined features

Abstract

Purpose – Analysis of characteristic driving operations can help develop supports for drivers with different driving skills. However, the existing knowledge on analysis of driving skills only focuses on single driving operation and cannot reflect the differences on proficiency of coordination of driving operations. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to analyze driving skills from driving coordinating operations. There are two main contributions: the first involves a method for feature extraction based on AdaBoost, which selects features critical for coordinating operations of experienced drivers and inexperienced drivers, and the second involves a generating method for candidate features, called the combined features method, through which two or more different driving operations at the same location are combined into a candidate combined feature. A series of experiments based on driving simulator and specific course with several different curves were carried out, and the result indicated the feasibility of analyzing driving behavior through AdaBoost and the combined features method. Design/methodology/approach – AdaBoost was used to extract features and the combined features method was used to combine two or more different driving operations at the same location. Findings – A series of experiments based on driving simulator and specific course with several different curves were carried out, and the result indicated the feasibility of analyzing driving behavior through AdaBoost and the combined features method. Originality/value – There are two main contributions: the first involves a method for feature extraction based on AdaBoost, which selects features critical for coordinating operations of experienced drivers and inexperienced drivers, and the second involves a generating method for candidate features, called the combined features method, through which two or more different driving operations at the same location are combined into a candidate combined feature.