Abstract
Background: Fatigue is a priority human factors concern that plays a significant role in industrial work performance, safety, and productivity. The transport sector has a history of fatigue-related accidents and poses a high hazard due to the relatively sedentary nature of driving, in combination with the extended work shifts for most operators. An important subgroup of the transport sector are drivers operating haulage equipment in the mining industry who face a comparatively high risk for fatigue due to the primarily perceptual-motor requirements. To address this issue, wearable technologies for fatigue detection using electroencephalography have been marketed to workplaces, including transport and haulage operators in the mining industry. However, few devices have been independently validated, especially in the field setting, or with consideration for unique individual and organizational contexts.
Purpose: This study sought to achieve two main objectives (i) evaluate the acceptance and usability of a novel, wearable, fatigue detection device in a mining field environment while evaluating individual and group (crew level) factors related to overall user experiences, and (ii) determine if real-time feedback from a wearable EEG fatigue-detection system helped reduce operators' fatigue risk and resulted in improvements in operator effectiveness at self-managing fatigue.
Methods: 17 operators of the Komatsu HD785-7 Off-Highway Haul Truck from two open-pit mines operating in the Guerrero Gold Belt in Mexico, were recruited to participate in this study. As the study applied to existing trucking operations, data collection was staged in alignment with the crew shift schedule, spanning 70-days. Operators initially wore the device for 10-day and 10-night shifts with no system feedback, had 10-days off, and then wore the device for 10-day and 10-night shifts with the system feedback activated. Pre- and post-intervention questionnaires were also implemented.
Results: With regards to acceptance and usability, the findings demonstrated a variable response for user acceptance, with usage hours ranging from <12 hours to 348 hours (from a potential 440 hours). Similarly, usability varied from 51-97% indicating that the application is easy to use for some, but not for all operators. When assessing the impact of the real-time feedback on operator self-management, the data was compared between the control condition (no alarms) and the intervention condition (fatigue alarms) to evaluate the ability of operators to self-manage based on self-detection versus self-management based on external real-time feedback. Behaviour change was noted for 9 operators, however, the variation in improvement or reduction was highly variable, with improvements ranging from 1.15-4.55%. Therefore, although there was a reduction in overall level 4 fatigue states detected once the alarms were activated, the activation of the alarms did not result in a significant improvement in self-management during the study period. Overall, these results reiterate that despite the demand and uptake of targeted wearable technologies, workplace health and safety specialists must assess the application in their unique workplace setting, with operator-level feedback on acceptance and usability.