STEERING WHEEL HANDS-ON/OFF DETECTION DEVICE AND METHOD THEREOF

A steering wheel hands-on/off detection device includes: an imaging part provided in a vehicle and configured to capture a motion of a driver; a dynamic sensor configured to measure a dynamics motion of the vehicle; an image processor configured to process an image obtained from the imaging part; and a vehicle safety controller. The image processor includes a driver monitoring part configured to derive a behavior type of the driver from the image and a keypoint extraction part configured to extract keypoints of the driver. An optimal torque and an optimal contact force are applied to the keypoints of the driver so that a driver dynamics model optimally controlled to follow a position of the driver is applied. The vehicle safety controller configured to determine steering wheel hands-on/off on the basis of a magnitude of a force applied to the steering wheel, which is estimated from the driver dynamics model.