Usability Evaluation for Driving with the Joystick and Mechanical Hand Controllers

Abstract

For lower limb disabled driving a car, mechanical manual controllers are mostly used to control the brake and accelerator. However, the joystick is mostly used to drive an airplane; is seldom used in driving a car. This study was aimed at evaluating usability of the joystick-style controller and mechanical manual controller for the lower-limb disabled driving a car. 20 participants were divided into experimental and control groups (10 persons for each group). The experimental group was lower limb disabled and the control group was non-disabled. Each subject performed driving simulator experiment with these two hand controllers, respectively. Driving performance, physiological load and subjective evaluation data were collected during the experiment. Both groups had significantly better driving performance with the joystick-type hand controller than that of the mechanical manual one. They also had significantly lower physiological load (percent of maximal heart rate) with the joystick-type hand controller than that of the mechanical manual one. However, they had similar subjective assessment between these two controllers. This study provides an advanced investigation for applying joystick in driving a car. But, further experiment should be conducted in the real road for confirming safety and efficiency.

Keywords: Lower limb disabled, manual controller, virtual driving simulator, driving performance

DOI: 10.54941/10043