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Advancing road safety: a comprehensive evaluation of object detection models for commercial driver monitoring systems

Advancing road safety: a comprehensive evaluation of object detection models for commercial driver monitoring systems
Advancing road safety: a comprehensive evaluation of object detection models for commercial driver monitoring systems

This paper addresses the critical issue of road safety in the indispensable role of transportation for societal well-being and economic growth. Despite global initiatives like Vision Zero, traffic accidents persist, largely influenced by driver behavior. Advanced driver monitoring systems (ADMSs) utilizing computer vision have emerged to mitigate this issue, but existing systems are often costly and inaccessible, particularly for bus companies. This study introduces a lightweight, deep-learning-based ADMS tailored for real-time driver behavior monitoring, addressing practical barriers to enhance safety measures. A meticulously curated dataset, encompassing diverse demographics and lighting conditions, captures 4966 images depicting five key driver behaviors: eye closure, yawning, smoking, mobile phone usage, and seatbelt compliance. Three object detection models—Faster R-CNN, RetinaNet, and YOLOv5—were evaluated using critical performance metrics. YOLOv5 demonstrated exceptional efficiency, achieving an FPS of 125, a compact model size of 42 MB, and an mAP@IoU 50% of 93.6%. Its performance highlights a favorable trade-off between speed, model size, and prediction accuracy, making it ideal for real-time applications. Faster R-CNN achieved an FPS of 8.56, a model size of 835 MB, and an mAP@IoU 50% of 89.93%, while RetinaNet recorded an FPS of 16.24, a model size of 442 MB, and an mAP@IoU 50% of 87.63%. The practical deployment of the ADMS on a mini CPU demonstrated cost-effectiveness and high performance, enhancing accessibility in real-world settings. By elucidating the strengths and limitations of different object detection models, this research contributes to advancing road safety through affordable, efficient, and reliable technology solutions.

advanced driver monitoring systems, deep learning, driver behavior detection, object detection models, real-time monitoring, transportation safety
2673-7590
Zia, Huma
74118b4c-35ab-44e8-a44f-daa4cc6f83e8
Hassan, Imtiaz ul
bce755ce-9f49-4357-8831-7a6853086dbd
Khurram, Muhammad
a2d15ef0-85a8-4975-b66f-5129650e3aa6
Harris, Nicholas
237cfdbd-86e4-4025-869c-c85136f14dfd
Shah, Fatima
10738139-146a-4bbc-8ea8-4ccc20cde95e
Imran, Nimra
9867a0ad-8238-4229-b62b-5c2adfffdf29
Zia, Huma
74118b4c-35ab-44e8-a44f-daa4cc6f83e8
Hassan, Imtiaz ul
bce755ce-9f49-4357-8831-7a6853086dbd
Khurram, Muhammad
a2d15ef0-85a8-4975-b66f-5129650e3aa6
Harris, Nicholas
237cfdbd-86e4-4025-869c-c85136f14dfd
Shah, Fatima
10738139-146a-4bbc-8ea8-4ccc20cde95e
Imran, Nimra
9867a0ad-8238-4229-b62b-5c2adfffdf29

Zia, Huma, Hassan, Imtiaz ul, Khurram, Muhammad, Harris, Nicholas, Shah, Fatima and Imran, Nimra (2025) Advancing road safety: a comprehensive evaluation of object detection models for commercial driver monitoring systems. Future Transportation, 5 (1), [2]. (doi:10.3390/futuretransp5010002).

Record type: Article

Abstract

This paper addresses the critical issue of road safety in the indispensable role of transportation for societal well-being and economic growth. Despite global initiatives like Vision Zero, traffic accidents persist, largely influenced by driver behavior. Advanced driver monitoring systems (ADMSs) utilizing computer vision have emerged to mitigate this issue, but existing systems are often costly and inaccessible, particularly for bus companies. This study introduces a lightweight, deep-learning-based ADMS tailored for real-time driver behavior monitoring, addressing practical barriers to enhance safety measures. A meticulously curated dataset, encompassing diverse demographics and lighting conditions, captures 4966 images depicting five key driver behaviors: eye closure, yawning, smoking, mobile phone usage, and seatbelt compliance. Three object detection models—Faster R-CNN, RetinaNet, and YOLOv5—were evaluated using critical performance metrics. YOLOv5 demonstrated exceptional efficiency, achieving an FPS of 125, a compact model size of 42 MB, and an mAP@IoU 50% of 93.6%. Its performance highlights a favorable trade-off between speed, model size, and prediction accuracy, making it ideal for real-time applications. Faster R-CNN achieved an FPS of 8.56, a model size of 835 MB, and an mAP@IoU 50% of 89.93%, while RetinaNet recorded an FPS of 16.24, a model size of 442 MB, and an mAP@IoU 50% of 87.63%. The practical deployment of the ADMS on a mini CPU demonstrated cost-effectiveness and high performance, enhancing accessibility in real-world settings. By elucidating the strengths and limitations of different object detection models, this research contributes to advancing road safety through affordable, efficient, and reliable technology solutions.

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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 17 December 2024
Published date: 1 January 2025
Additional Information: Publisher Copyright: © 2025 by the authors.
Keywords: advanced driver monitoring systems, deep learning, driver behavior detection, object detection models, real-time monitoring, transportation safety

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 501839
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/501839
ISSN: 2673-7590
PURE UUID: cf574715-4967-4c6f-bff8-50afba3cda91
ORCID for Nicholas Harris: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-4122-2219

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 10 Jun 2025 18:29
Last modified: 22 Aug 2025 01:37

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Contributors

Author: Huma Zia
Author: Imtiaz ul Hassan
Author: Muhammad Khurram
Author: Nicholas Harris ORCID iD
Author: Fatima Shah
Author: Nimra Imran

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