Study on the Driver/Steering Wheel Interaction in Emergency Situations

Abstract

Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) are becoming increasingly prevalent. The tuning of these systems would benefit from a deep knowledge of human behaviour, especially during emergency manoeuvres; however, this does not appear to commonly be the case. We introduced an instrumented steering wheel (ISW) to measure three components of force and three components of the moment applied by each hand, separately. Using the ISW, we studied the kick plate manoeuvre. The kick plate manoeuvre is an emergency manoeuvre to recover a lateral disturbance inducing a spin. The drivers performed the manoeuvre either keeping two hands on the steering wheel or one hand only. In both cases, a few instants after the lateral disturbance induced by the kick plate occurred, a torque peak was applied at the ISW. Such a torque appeared to be unintentional. The voluntary torque on the ISW occurred after the unintentional torque. The emergency manoeuvre performed with only one hand was quicker, since, if two hands were used, an initial fighting of the two hands against each other was present. Therefore, we propose to model the neuro-muscular activity in driver models to consider the involuntary muscular phenomena, which has a relevant effect on the vehicle dynamic response.

Simulation and Post-Processing for Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS)

“…Although LSSs are classified as active safety technology, it is important to note that they are only driver-assistance systems, as they can be modified and replaced by the driver's action. For example, systems that help the car steer to get it back into its lane can be changed by the driver simply by applying more torque to the steering than the system [15,16].…”

Advances in Mechanical Systems Dynamics 2020

“…In [13], a driver-aid system to improve directional stability of articulated vehicles is developed. Finally, in [14], the driver-steering wheel interaction in emergency situations is dealt with in the framework of the development of advanced driver assistance systems.…”

“…Indeed, the design of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) in four-wheeled vehicles is resulting in complex interactions between the driver and vehicle while in two-wheeled vehicles the importance of the rider-vehicle interaction on the vehicle stability has been recognized. In this Special Issue, the investigation of the driver-steering interaction is experimentally carried out in [14], with an instrumented steering wheel, while in [15] the effect of the rider's passive vibration on the stability of a two-wheeled vehicle is considered, with a focus on the weave and wobble modes. Finally, in [16], the most used biomechanical models are compared and employed to build a multibody rider model suitable for multibody applications.…”

“…The interaction of the driver with the vehicle's steering has been investigated in the past both in the case of cars and motorcycles. In [14], the focus on an instrumented steering wheel (ISW) is employed to investigate the driver's response to a lateral disturbance (the so-called "kick-plate" maneuver) on the vehicle dynamics. A notable feature of the work is that the ISW employed is capable of measuring the force and moment applied by each hand separately.…”