A lightweight and explainable model for driver abnormal behavior recognition

With the advancement of intelligent transportation systems, accurate identification of driver abnormal behavior is crucial for enhancing road safety. However, the limited computing power of vehicular systems poses a challenge for running efficient and explainable behavior recognition models. This paper proposes a lightweight and explainable driver abnormal behavior recognition model based on an improved You Only Look Once version 8 (YOLOv8). Firstly, a Spatial and Channel Reconstruction Convolution (SCConv) module is introduced to optimize the Convolution to Feature (C2f) structure, enhancing the model's feature extraction capabilities while reducing parameter redundancy. Secondly, a Spatial Pyramid Pooling with Fast Large Separable Kernel Attention (SPPF-LSKA) module is designed to better capture image context and integrate global information. Additionally, a Dynamic upsample (Dysample) module is introduced to improve the model's ability to capture subtle driver movements. Lastly, a Lightweight Shared Group Normalization Convolution Detection Head (LSGCDH) is designed to enhance the model's generalization ability, significantly reducing the model's computational load, parameter count, and size. Experimental results demonstrate that our approach has significant advantages for edge device deployment compared to mainstream algorithms. The visualization results effectively corroborate the role of each improved structure, enhancing the explainability of the abnormal behavior recognition model, which is beneficial for deployment in vehicular systems and contributes to improving road traffic safety.