Evaluation of reaction time performance and subjective drowsiness during whole-body vibration exposure

International Conference on Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering 2017

航空航天工程;机械制造

Azizan, A.^1 ; Zali, Z.^1 ; Padil, H.^1

Universiti Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Institute of Aviation Technology, Lot 2891 Jalan Jenderam Hulu, Dengkil, Selangor

43800, Malaysia^1

关键词: Effect of vibration;    Exposed to;    Human bodies;    Human comforts;    Low vibration;    Random vibrations;    Vibration amplitude;    Whole body vibration;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-899X/370/1/012020/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1757-899X/370/1/012020

学科分类：航空航天科学

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

Despite the automotive industry's interest in how vibration affects the level of human comfort, there is little focus on the effect of vibration on drowsiness level. Thus, this study involves eighteen healthy male participants to study the effect of exposure to vibration on the drowsiness level. Prior to the experiment, the total transmitted vibration measured at interfaces between the seat pan and seat back to the human body for each participant was modified to become 0.2 ms-2r.m.s and 0.4 ms-2r.m.s. During the experiment, the participants were seated and exposed to 20-minutes of Gaussian random vibration with frequency band 1-15 Hz at two level of amplitude (low vibration amplitude and medium vibration amplitude) on separate days. The level of drowsiness was measured using a PVT test prior and after exposure to the vibration while participants rated their subjective drowsiness by using the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS). The significant increase in the number of lapse and reaction time because of the exposure to vibration in both conditions provide strong evidence of drowsiness. In this regard, the medium vibration amplitude shows a more prominent effect. All participants have shown a steady increase of drowsiness level in KSS. Meanwhile, there are no significant differences found between low vibration amplitude and medium vibration amplitude in the KSS. These findings suggest that human alertness level is greatly affected by the exposure to vibration and these effects are more pronounced at higher vibration amplitude. Both findings indicate that the presence of vibration promotes drowsiness, especially at higher vibration amplitude.