Human Factors
Human Factors: Research in assessment and legislation issues has grown through the EU AGILE project (£100k) and the EPSRC Driver Evaluation, Assessment and Monitoring Environment (DREAM) project (£203k). This has led to new information about how to assess driver abilities. Research into the driving behaviour of the elderly has continued and has led to an invitation to write a state of the art paper on assessing competency in elderly drivers, and has led to the development of design guidelines for future vehicles. Further studies on pregnant and injured drivers (in leg plaster casts) are ongoing and papers arising from these studies are awaiting publication. Also, research work has been carried out on vehicle adaptations for disabled drivers through a DfT funded project (DfT 9/72/109, £150k). The award of this DfT research project owes much to the excellent relationship developed between AMAP and DfT through AMAP's reachout activities. A further outcome of these studies has been new information on the role of telematic devices to assist drivers in these categories.
The Sunderland Driving Simulator has been upgraded considerably and in particular has been extended to extend the vision range to 180° for use in researching driver behaviour at junctions. It has been used for driver impairment studies, with overseas institutions (Riken Institute, Japan) for cognitive psychology, with other universities (Northumbria) for driver visualisation studies, and with other academic areas (Psychology) for eyetracking and EEG studies.