Argos-ESL: a versatile tool for planning and managing experiments on driving behavior

Abstract

Purpose: Argos is a long-term program started in 1990 to promote experimental research about driver behavior under realistic driving conditions. The development of the latest Argos platform has recently been completed and some experiments have been carried out based on this new complex and powerful tool. System Description: Argos allows recording multiple car parameters (such as speed), driver variables (such as the point of gaze), and environmental parameters (some of which are obtained by means of real-time signal processing, such as the distance to lateral road marks). All of these data can be used to replay driving sessions in the laboratory and to extract data associated with different driving session segments. Paper contents: This paper is focused on the description of the ”Roadmap Program Interpreter”, a tool embedded in the Argos acquisition and control system which not only interacts with the equipment, but also with the driver and with the experiment supervisor. This tool is based on a new language, ESL –Experiment Specification Language– designed for the Argos project to help the experiment designer to formally specify complex, controlled, and repeatable experiments in a very efficient way. Argos-ESL has allowed the Spanish Traffic Agency (DGT, a governmental agency) as well as other local agencies to develop complex experiments in a fraction of the time previously needed by the DGT for designing similar driving experiments.