Driving scenarios and environmental settings in simulator-based driving assessment systems for stroke: a systematic review

BackgroundDriving simulators are effective tools to evaluate the driving abilities of patients with stroke. They can introduce various driving scenarios which will greatly benefit both the assessors and drivers. However, there is still no guidelines by which driving scenarios should be introduced in the driving assessment.ObjectivesWe conducted a systematic review to examine the utilization of driving scenarios and environments in the simulator-based driving assessment for patients with stroke.MethodsA systematic review was conducted following PRISMA. We searched PubMed, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, ACM Digital Library, and IEEE Xplore Digital Library databases in January and June 2022 to identify eligible articles published since 2010.ResultsOur searches identified 1,614 articles. We included 12 studies that applied driving simulators to assess the driving performance of patients with stroke. The driving scenarios were categorized into three categories - vehicle controls scenarios, hazard perception scenarios, and trajectory planning scenarios - based on a certain set of driving abilities. The most common driving scenarios are simple navigation (n = 8) and emergency stop (n = 8). The most frequently used driving area is urban (n = 9), and a variety of roads and traffic conditions were found in the included studies. Only 2 studies applied weather conditions, such as the clear and sunny condition or the windy condition.ConclusionIt is recommended for future research to consider covering scenarios from the aforementioned three categories and further investigate the benefits of introducing complex weather conditions and localized traffic conditions in the driving assessment.

Automated summary

Driving simulators are effective tools for assessing the driving abilities of stroke patients. However, there is a lack of guidelines on the types of driving scenarios to be introduced in the assessment.