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This paper proposes an active-steering control method that uses human hand impedance properties. In this method, the dynamic properties of a steering device manipulated by the upper limbs are automatically regulated according to the damping coefficient of the human-steering system. Human hand impedance in steering operations is measured and modeled depending on the steering angle and torque for use in the proposed control structure. The effectiveness of the proposed method was demonstrated by performing an emergency avoidance task using a stationary driving simulator.

Abstract-This paper presents the experimental data of human mechanical impedance properties (HMIP) of the arms measured in the steering operations according to the angle of a steering wheel (limbs posture) and the steering torque (muscle co-contraction). The HMIP data shows that human stiffness/viscosity has the minimum/maximum value at the neutral angle of the steering wheel in relax (standard condition) and increases/decreases for the amplitude of steering angle and torque, and that the stability of arms motion in handling the steering wheel becomes high around the standard condition. Next a novel methodology for designing an adaptive steering control system based on HMIP of the arms is proposed, and the effectiveness was then demonstrated via a set of double-lanechange tests with several subjects using the originally developed stationary driving simulator and the 4-DOF driving simulator with a movable cockpit.

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