Identification of a driver model incorporating sensory dynamics, with nonlinear vehicle dynamics and transient disturbances

Abstract

In earlier work, a driver model incorporating sensory dynamics was identified from driving simulator experiments involving random disturbances, random target paths and linear vehicle dynamics. In the present paper, the driver model and experiments are extended to include transient disturbances, discrete target paths and nonlinear vehicle dynamics. The predictions of the model are compared with measurements from the experiments. Simulator motion is found to have a significant beneficial effect on drivers' responses, giving faster driver reaction times and more successful disturbance rejection and path following. The driver model predicts the measured responses well. The model suggests that drivers are unable to develop an accurate internal model of motion cueing filters, perceiving phase and gain distortions introduced by filtering as disturbances. Drivers are found able to account for the time-varying operating point of a nonlinear vehicle. The driver model is also able to match the behaviour of experienced drivers near the friction limit of the tyres, however, further work is necessary to understand how an inaccurate internal model impedes the performance of less experienced drivers. The findings contribute new knowledge to the fields of driver simulation and motion cueing.

A Simulation Study of Human Sensory Dynamics and Driver–Vehicle Response

“…2. Full details and parameter values are given in [10][11][12]19] and in the data repository (link given in the acknowledgement), but a brief description is provided in the remainder of this section to enable the reader to interpret the results given in the paper.…”

“…The driver-vehicle model was extensively identified and validated using measured data collected from driving simulator experiments [10][11][12]19]. The driving simulator was equipped with a high-bandwidth motion base.…”

“…rectly to the lateral and yaw velocities as described in [19]. In simulations of the nonlinear driver model, the parameters for an understeering vehicle with 'nonlinear increasing tyre' are from [10].…”

“…In [19] it was found difficult to define a fixed set of signal-to-noise ratios to model a driver's response to transient disturbances, since the noise magnitudes are dependent on the characteristics of the transient signals. Therefore except where stated all simulations in Section 4 are performed in the frequency domain and use filtered white noise target and disturbance signals instead of deterministic transient signals.…”

“…In Section 4.2 the RMS path-following error and the RMS handwheel steering angle predicted by the model are used to further quantify the effect of visual and vestibular sensory feedback on path-following and disturbancerejection tasks. In addition, the model is used to provide new insight to the finding in [12,19] that drivers in a moving-base simulator may not always correctly account for high-pass filtered motion, and instead drive as though the motion were scaled.…”