D. Phil. (Energy Studies) / Quantifying energy consumed and emissions produced by transport is essential for effective policy formulation and urban environmental management. Current first-world methods for determining vehicle emissions factors are technology and resource intensive, and results cannot be applied directly to cities in other parts of the world. There is a need for alternative cost-effective and accurate methods for determining real-world fuel consumption and emissions from vehicles in cities of the developing world. In this thesis, a new emissions simulation and inventory model is developed and implemented as a software tool. A novel application of low cost on-board diagnostics equipment and Global Positioning System sensors is devised to survey engine-operating parameters, driving conditions and vehicle usage profiles needed by the model. An emissions inventory is produced for the City of Johannesburg using the software tool and surveying method to demonstrate the overall process. The core contribution of this thesis is the logical development of data structures and software tools which link base engine-operating patterns (of engine speed and engine load), derived from the literature, to measured engine-operating patterns and vehicle activity from real-world driving. A range of real-world driving cycles and emission factors published by the Swiss Institute of Materials Science and Technology are transformed to produce the base engine-operating patterns and their corresponding emissions factors. The calculation of emission factors for real-world driving involves matching measured engineoperating patterns to combinations of the base engine-operating patterns using numerical methods. The method is validated using a cross validation technique. The emissions inventory application integrates measured engine-operating patterns, vehicle activity, fleet structure, fuel sales and the emissions simulation procedure to calculate total emissions. Fuel consumption and emissions of interest are CO2, CO, HC, NOx. Measurements of engine operating parameters and vehicle usage patterns were recorded for 30 privately owned passenger vehicles from the Johannesburg fleet. The selection included Euro-0 (a mixture of pre Euro-1 vehicles), Euro-2 and Euro-3 petrol vehicles, and Euro-2 diesel private passenger vehicles. Fifteen billion vehicle kilometres were driven in Johannesburg by private passenger vehicles per year consuming 325 million litres of diesel and 1 524 billion litres of petrol. iv Total emissions were estimated to be 4.13 Mt CO2, 82.77 kt CO, 9.15 kt HC, and 24.49 kt NOx. Between 88 and 93% of the total emissions were from vehicles which fall into the Euro-0 petrol category. Diesel vehicles did not make a significant contribution to CO and HC emissions but contributed 14% of the NOx and 19% of the CO2 emissions. During weekdays, 28 to 31% and 25 to 27% of the total fuel consumption and emissions were due to the morning commute and the evening commute periods respectively. Although minibus taxis, buses, freight and vehicle age significantly impact on total fuel consumption and emissions in cities they were not considered within the scope of this study. Vehicle usage patterns are analysed to produce spatial maps and diurnal charts of congestion on suburban roads, streets and highways within the Johannesburg municipal area. Times and locations of congestion are presented in terms of a standard congestion index, and suggestion given on how and where congestion problems could be addressed. This study shows that vehicle emissions inventories can be cost effectively produced by surveying engine-operating parameters and vehicle usage profiles using on-board diagnostics and Global Positioning System sensors and simulating emissions factors using a new emissions simulation and emissions inventory model.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(人間健康科学) / 甲第23129号 / 人健博第91号 / 新制||人健||6(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院医学研究科人間健康科学系専攻 / (主査)教授 澤本 伸克, 教授 十一 元三, 教授 髙橋 良輔 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Human Health Sciences / Kyoto University / DFAM

No description available.

A study was undertaken to test and evaluate the human factors design aspects of an automobile moving-map navigation system. The primary objective of the study was to assess the driver attentional demand required by the navigation system during vehicle operation. A secondary objective of the study was to assess design specifics and determine whether or not the design was optimal in terms of efficiency of use in an automotive environment. Thirty-two driver-subjects drove a specially instrumented 1985 Cadillac Sedan de Ville on public roadways for this research. A cross-section of driver-subjects (both genders, ages 18 to 73, and driving experience from 2,000 to 40,000 miles per year) participated, and a cross·section of roadway types (residential, two-lane state route, and limited·access four-lane) and traffic conditions (light and moderate) were used as part of this research. The driver-subjects were asked to perform a variety of tasks while operating the research vehicle. These tasks included navigation tasks normally performed while using the navigation system, as well as a wide variety of conventional automotive tasks (e.g., tuning the radio or reading the speedometer) normally performed during vehicle operation. The purpose of asking the driver-subjects to perform a variety of conventional automotive tasks was so that direct comparisons in attentional demand could be made between tasks performed daily in an automotive environment and the navigation tasks. Twenty-one performance and behavioral measures were collected and analyzed for this research. These measures included eye—scanning and dwell-time measures, task-completion-time measures, and a variety of measures indicating driver performance and behavior. The data analyses for these measures focused on two major goals. First, the analyses determined which tasks (both navigator and conventional) required the highest attentional demand. Second, the analyses were used to determine groups of tasks which, for all practical purposes, required equivalent attentional demand. The results of the analyses indicated that the navigation system is a relatively effective device, useful for its intended purpose. The results also indicated that a number of design improvements are required, however, to optimize the safety and efficiency of the device. An iterative process of design improvement and further research into the effects of improved design on required attentional demand is therefore recommended. / Ph. D.

No description available.

Human factors research of automobile driver behavior often calls for timing in-car manual tasks. By measuring the time that a driver directs resources away from the primary task of driving, investigators can determine both if and where improvements need to be made in the driver-vehicle relationship. The present study was designed to compare the accuracy of various techniques for measuring in-car manual task durations. Additionally, this research was intended to reveal how closely these techniques approach the accuracy of the frame-by-frame video analysis method, which is time-consuming and expensive to perform. The study required three male and three female subjects to use an electronic stopwatch to measure "hand-off-wheel" times for 30 driver tasks. Each subject performed this procedure three times: once while sitting as an observer in the back seat of a research vehicle, once while watching a real-time video recording of task performance, and once while watching a one-sixth real-time video recording of task performance. Three independent variables were examined: timing Method (three levels), Duration of in-car task (three levels), and Subject (six levels). Dependent measures gathered were raw timing error (a measure of response bias), absolute timing error (a measure of response accuracy), and squared timing error (a measure of response consistency). Timing error was obtained by subtracting the measured time for a particular task from the "true" task time obtained by using the frame-by-frame video analysis technique. Analysis of the data indicated a significant effect of Method on response bias. Specifically, use of the slow-motion video technique resulted in overestimation of in-car task durations, and use of the two real-time techniques resulted in estimates of task durations that were either equal to or less than the true durations. Significant effects of Subject, Gender, and Subject x Method were also revealed. The results suggest that the on-road timing technique should be used in the future, since this procedure requires little in terms of cost and implementation time, and errors are small when compared with the frame-by-frame technique. Furthermore, it is recommended that only one experimenter serve as a timing analyst during an experiment to ensure a constant level of accuracy. / Master of Science

A study was performed to evaluate the effectiveness, efficiency, and strategy associated with three navigation methods: memorized route, conventional paper map, and a moving-map navigational display (the navigator). Thirty-two driver-subjects of both genders, and wide ranges of age (18-73) and driving experience (2,000 to 40,000 miles per year) navigated along public roadways for this research using a specially instrumented automobile. A variety of different roadway conditions were also used for this research including limited access four-lane highways, two-lane state routes, and city streets. In addition, the research was conducted under conditions of both light and moderate traffic densities. Measures taken include eye movement, navigation effectiveness, and driving performance measures. Results showed that the paper map took longer to study at the beginning of a run than the navigator. Even with this handicap, the total time taken when using the paper map was not significantly different from the time taken to use the navigator. Also, there were no differences in the directness or quality of routes selected when using either the paper map or the navigator to navigate. These findings were a result of the strategies adopted in the use of the various methods of navigation. During the initial study phase the paper map was essentially used to plan the entire route from start to finish. After the initial phase, the map was used only as an occasional reference. In contrast, effective use of the navigator could only be accomplished by repetitively glancing at the display to acquire important information as it was updated and presented. As a result, subjects spent more driving time glancing to the navigator than the paper map, and it substantially drew the subjects' gaze away from the driving task relative to the norm established in the memorized route condition, as well as in comparison to the paper map. Still, driving performance did not greatly change as a function of navigation method indicating that the additional visual attentional demand associated with the navigator was drawn primarily from spare driver resources. It is also very likely that the novelty of the navigator was responsible for some portion of the glance time spent on it. / Ph. D.

Road traffic accidents are a serious burden to the health systems of many countries especially in South Africa. Research aimed at reducing traffic related accidents is of importance as traffic crashes are rated as the second leading cause of fatalities in South Africa and ninth in the world. Despite the extensive efforts into research and development of new technology, driver fatigue still remains a cause of vehicle accidents worldwide. Fatigue plays a role in up to 20% of vehicle accidents with many being serious or fatal. Numerous coping behaviours are employed by drivers to counteract the negative effects of fatigue. The most common coping behaviours include taking short naps, talking to passengers, listening to the radio, opening windows and drinking stimulants. Driving breaks have long been identified as an effective countermeasure against fatigue. Most research done in driving breaks has investigated the duration of the breaks, activity undertaken during the break and the frequency of the breaks taken outside the vehicle. However limited literature is available on the effectiveness of breaks in counteracting the effects of fatigue. The objective of the current study was aimed at assessing whether short duration breaks are an effective countermeasure against fatigue. Physiological, neurophysiological, subjective and performance measures were used as indicators for fatigue. Additional focus of the research was determining whether breaks were more or less effective at counteracting the effects of fatigue at different times of day. Twelve participants were recruited for the study, six males and six females. The participants were required to perform a driving task on a simulator for 90 minutes. The study consisted of four independent conditions, namely driving during the day with breaks, driving during the day without breaks, driving during the night with breaks and driving during the night without breaks. The without breaks conditions were similar except that they occurred at different times of the day, one session at night and the other session during day time, as was the case for the conditions with breaks. The driving task used in the current study was a low fidelity simulator tracking task. The participants were required to follow a centre line displayed on a tracking path as accurately as possible. The measurements that were recorded in this study included physiological, performance, subjective and neurophysiological. Physiological measures included heart rate and heart rate variability (frequency domain) and core body temperature. The ascending threshold of the critical flicker fusion frequency was the only neurophysiological measurement included in the current investigation. Performance was quantified by mean deviation from a centre line participants were meant to track. Two rating scales were used: Karolinska sleepiness scale and the Wits sleepiness scale were used for the measurement of subjective sleepiness. Heart rate, heart rate variability and mean deviation were measured continuously throughout the 90 minute driving task. Critical flicker fusion frequency, temperature and the subjective scales were measured before and after the 90 minute driving task. The results indicated that the short duration breaks during day time had a positive effect on driving performance; however the breaks at night had a negative effect on driving performance. Heart rate was higher during the day compared to night time and the heart rate variability high frequency spectrum values were lower during the day condition, to show the activation of the sympathetic nervous system which is characteristic of day time. The night conditions had lower heart rate values and higher heart rate variability high frequency values, which show the activation of the parasympathetic nervous system which is dominant during periods of fatigue and night time. Subjective sleepiness levels were also higher at night compared to day time.

No description available.

The next generation of intelligent vehicles will evolve from being able to drive autonomously to ones that communicate with other vehicles and execute joint behaviors. Before allowing these vehicles on public roads, we must guarantee that they will not cause accidents. We will apply formal methods to ensure the degree of safety that cannot be assured with simulation or closed-track testing. However, there are challenges that need to be addressed when applying formal verification techniques to cooperative driving systems. This thesis focuses on the techniques that address the following challenges: 1. Automotive applications interact with the physical world in different ways; 2. Cooperative driving systems are time-critical; 3. The problem of state explosion when we apply formal verification to systems with more participants. First, we describe the multiple stack architecture. It combines several stacks, each of which addresses a particular way of interaction with the physical world. The layered structure in each stack makes it possible for engineers to implement cooperative driving applications without being bogged down by the details of low-level devices. Having functions arranged in a layered fashion helps us divide the verification of the whole system into smaller subproblems of independent module verification. Secondly, we present a framework for modeling the protocol systems that uses GPS clocks for synchronization. We introduce the timing stack, which separates a process into two parts: the part modeled as an finite-state machine that controls state transitions and messages exchanges, and the part that determines the exact moment that a timed event should occur. The availability of accurate clocks at different locations allows processes to execute actions simultaneously, reducing interleaving that often arises in systems that use multiple timers to control timed events. With accurate clocks, we create a lock protocol that resolves conflicting merge requests for driver-assisted merging. Thirdly, we introduce stratified probabilistic verification that mitigates state explosion. It greatly improves the probability bound obtained in the original probabilistic verification algorithm. Unlike most techniques that aim at reducing state space, it is a directed state traversal, prioritizing the states that are more likely to be encountered during system execution. When state traversal stops upon depleting the memory, the unexplored states are the ones that are less likely to be reached. We construct a linear program whose solution is the upper bound for the probability of reaching those unexplored states. The stratified algorithm is particularly useful when considering a protocol system that depends on several imperfect components that may fail with small but hard-to-quantify probabilities. In that case, we adopt a compositional approach to verify a collection of components, assuming that the components have inexact probability guarantees. Finally, we present our design of driver-assisted merging. Its design is reasonably simplified by using the multiple stack architecture and GPS clocks. We use a stratified algorithm to show that merging system fails less than once every 5 × 10¹³ merge attempts.