Role of steering wheel feedback on driver performance: driving simulator and modeling analysis

When driving in curves, how do drivers use the force appearing on the steering wheel? As it carries information related to lateral acceleration, this force could be necessary for drivers to tune their internal model of vehicle dynamics; alternatively, being opposed to the drivers' efforts, it could just help them stabilize the steering wheel position. To assess these two hypotheses, we designed an experiment on a motion-based driving simulator. The steering characteristics of the vehicle were modified in the course of driving, unknown to drivers. Results obtained with standard drivers showed a surprisingly wide range of adaptation, except for exaggerated modifications of the steering force feedback. A two-level driver model, combining a preview of vehicle dynamics and a neuromuscular steering control, reproduces these experimental results qualitatively and indicates that adaptation occurs at the haptic level rather than in the internal model of vehicle dynamics. This effect is related to other theories on the manual control of dynamics systems, wherein force feedback characteristics are abstracted at the position control level. This research also illustrates the use of driving simulation for the study of driver behavior and future intelligent steering assistance systems.     

Role of steering wheel feedback on driver performance: driving simulator and modeling analysis

When driving in curves, how do drivers use the force appearing on the steering wheel? As it carries information related to lateral acceleration, this force could be necessary for drivers to tune their internal model of vehicle dynamics; alternatively, being opposed to the drivers' efforts, it could just help them stabilize the steering wheel position. To assess these two hypotheses, we designed an experiment on a motion-based driving simulator. The steering characteristics of the vehicle were modified in the course of driving, unknown to drivers. Results obtained with standard drivers showed a surprisingly wide range of adaptation, except for exaggerated modifications of the steering force feedback. A two-level driver model, combining a preview of vehicle dynamics and a neuromuscular steering control, reproduces these experimental results qualitatively and indicates that adaptation occurs at the haptic level rather than in the internal model of vehicle dynamics. This effect is related to other theories on the manual control of dynamics systems, wherein force feedback characteristics are abstracted at the position control level. This research also illustrates the use of driving simulation for the study of driver behavior and future intelligent steering assistance systems.     

基于车辆加速度数据的互通立交匝道驾驶风险分析

为明确互通立交匝道的运行特性和驾驶风险,在重庆市南山立交和江南立交开展了超过30位被试者的小客车实车驾驶试验,通过Speedbox和Mobileye等车载高精度仪器采集了小客车在4条迂回式匝道上的连续运行数据,包括行驶速度、横向加速度、纵向加速度等,明确了迂回式匝道的车辆运行状态,然后运用表征横、纵向加速度关系的G-G...     

基于数据驱动的人机混驾多车协同控制算法

针对多车协同控制系统中，传统控制算法需要准确获取系统中与驾驶员驾驶行为相关的参数以及与车辆系统动力学相关参数等问题，提出基于数据驱动的自适应动态规划控制算法。以有人与无人驾驶车辆混行的多车协同控制系统为研究对象，通过分析系统的横纵向控制模型，推导出系统状态方程，采用递推数值方法在线逼近最优解，并通过对最优反馈控制矩阵进行优化求解，得到最优控制输入。该算法简化了系统的控制输入参数，仅仅利用V2X通信获得的车辆的前轮转角以及车辆期望的纵向加速度作为控制输入，即可实现无人驾驶车辆的优化控制。基于Carsim和Simulink进行联合仿真测试验证，结果表明，该算法控制参数简单、收敛速度快、控制精度高、适应性强，能够控制无人驾驶车辆在多车系统中保持期望的车速并且与前车保持期望的车间距，同时在任意曲率道路上行驶时与车道中心线之间的横向误差趋于0。      

An optimal model-based trajectory following architecture synthesising the lateral adaptive preview strategy and longitudinal velocity planning for highly automated vehicle

Automated driving has received a broad of attentions from the academia and industry, since it is effective to greatly reduce the severity of potential traffic accidents and achieve the ultimate automobile safety and comfort. This paper presents an optimal model-based trajectory following architecture for highly automated vehicle in its driving tasks such as automated guidance or lane keeping, which includes a velocity-planning module, a steering controller and a velocity-tracking controller. The velocity-planning module considering the optimal time-consuming and passenger comforts simultaneously could generate a smooth velocity profile. The robust sliding mode control (SMC) steering controller with adaptive preview time strategy could not only track the target path well, but also avoid a big lateral acceleration occurred in its path-tracking progress due to a fuzzy-adaptive preview time mechanism introduced. In addition, an SMC controller with input–output linearisation method for velocity tracking is built and validated. Simulation results show this trajectory following architecture are effective and feasible for high automated driving vehicle, comparing with the Driver-in-the-Loop simulations performed by an experienced driver and novice driver, respectively. The simulation results demonstrate that the present trajectory following architecture could plan a satisfying longitudinal speed profile, track the target path well and safely when dealing with different road geometry structure, it ensures a good time efficiency and driving comfort simultaneously.     

基于电子地图信息的车辆主动转向仿真

以驾驶员预瞄点处的横向偏移最小为目标，以道路曲率输入的车辆运动模型为基础，分析了车辆进行主动转向所需要的道路环境信息，并研究了利用电子地图及车辆定位传感器得到这些信息的方法。利用设计的转向控制器进行了恒定道路曲率及基于电子地图数据的实际道路信息输入下的主动转向仿真。仿真结果表明，利用电子地图提供的信息能够在投入较低成本的条件下进行主动转向，使车辆在道路曲率变化的情况下沿预定道路行驶并有着较小的侧向加速度；从而提高车辆在弯曲道路行驶的安全性、舒适性。     

Nonlinear PI front and rear steering control in four wheel steering vehicles

Vehicle steering dynamics show resonances, which depend on the longitudinal speed, unstable equilibrium points and limited stability regions depending on the constant steering wheel angle, longitudinal speed and car parameters.

The main contribution of this paper is to show that a combined decentralized proportional active front steering control and proportional-integral active rear steering control from the yaw rate tracking error can assign the eigenvalues of the linearised single track steering dynamics, without lateral speed measurements, using a standard single track car model with nonlinear tire characteristics and a non-linear first-order reference model for the yaw rate dynamics driven by the driver steering wheel input. By choosing a suitable nonlinear reference model it is shown that the responses to driver step inputs tend to zero (or reduced) lateral speed for any value of longitudinal speed: in this case the resulting controlled vehicle static gain from driver input to yaw rate differs from the uncontrolled one at higher speed. The closed loop system shows the advantages of both active front and rear steering control: higher controllability, enlarged bandwidth for the yaw rate dynamics, suppressed resonances, new stable cornering manoeuvres, enlarged stability regions, reduced lateral speed and improved manoeuvrability; in addition comfort is improved since the phase lag between lateral acceleration and yaw rate is reduced.

For the designed control law a robustness analysis is presented with respect to system failures, driver step inputs and critical car parameters such as mass, moment of inertia and front and rear cornering stiffness coefficients. Several simulations are carried out on a higher order experimentally validated nonlinear dynamical model to confirm the analysis and to explore the robustness with respect to unmodelled dynamics.     

Nonlinear PI front and rear steering control in four wheel steering vehicles

Vehicle steering dynamics show resonances, which depend on the longitudinal speed, unstable equilibrium points and limited stability regions depending on the constant steering wheel angle, longitudinal speed and car parameters.

The main contribution of this paper is to show that a combined decentralized proportional active front steering control and proportional-integral active rear steering control from the yaw rate tracking error can assign the eigenvalues of the linearised single track steering dynamics, without lateral speed measurements, using a standard single track car model with nonlinear tire characteristics and a non-linear first-order reference model for the yaw rate dynamics driven by the driver steering wheel input. By choosing a suitable nonlinear reference model it is shown that the responses to driver step inputs tend to zero (or reduced) lateral speed for any value of longitudinal speed: in this case the resulting controlled vehicle static gain from driver input to yaw rate differs from the uncontrolled one at higher speed. The closed loop system shows the advantages of both active front and rear steering control: higher controllability, enlarged bandwidth for the yaw rate dynamics, suppressed resonances, new stable cornering manoeuvres, enlarged stability regions, reduced lateral speed and improved manoeuvrability; in addition comfort is improved since the phase lag between lateral acceleration and yaw rate is reduced.

For the designed control law a robustness analysis is presented with respect to system failures, driver step inputs and critical car parameters such as mass, moment of inertia and front and rear cornering stiffness coefficients. Several simulations are carried out on a higher order experimentally validated nonlinear dynamical model to confirm the analysis and to explore the robustness with respect to unmodelled dynamics.     

基于多视图协同交互技术的换道图谱构建与分类

为直观展示换道过程中驾驶人视觉感知与手脚操作的细节特征,研究了多视图协同可视化的换道图谱.采用驾驶模拟舱进行高速公路驾驶实验,提取换道过程相关指标数据.将平行坐标、计数图、柱状图与换道轨迹协同可视化以构建换道图谱.采用多视图交互技术对提取的40个换道过程进行分析,提出换道过程的合格区范围并以此将换道图谱分为合格、临界合...     

A two-stage-training support vector machine approach to predicting unintentional vehicle lane departure

Advanced driver assistance systems, such as unintentional lane departure warning systems, have recently drawn much attention and efforts. In this study, we explored utilizing the nonlinear binary support vector machine (SVM) technique to predict unintentional lane departure, which is innovative, as the SVM methodology has not previously been attempted for this purpose in the literature. Furthermore, we developed a two-stage training scheme to improve SVM's prediction performance in terms of minimization of the number of false positive prediction errors. Experiment data generated by VIRTTEX, a hydraulically powered, 6-degrees-of-freedom moving base driving simulator at Ford Motor Company, were used. All the vehicle variables were sampled at 50 Hz and there were 16 drowsy drivers (about 3 hours of driving per subject) and six control drivers (approximately 20 minutes f driving each). In total, 3,508 unintentional lane departures occurred for the drowsy drivers and 23 for the control drivers. Our study involving these 22 drivers with a total of more than 7.5 million prediction decisions demonstrates that (a) excellent SVM prediction performance, measured by numbers of false positives (i.e., falsely predicted lane departures) and false negatives (i.e., lane departures failed to be predicted), was achieved when the prediction horizon was 0.6 seconds or less, (b) lateral position and lateral velocity worked the best as SVM input variables among the nine variable sets that we explored, and (c) the radial basis function performed the best as the SVM kernel function.     

MPC-BASED steering control for backward-driving vehicle using stereo vision

We propose a steering control algorithm for autonomous backward driving in a narrow corridor. Passable spaces are detected using a stereo camera, and the steering angle is controlled by a model predictive controller (MPC). For passable space detection, an UV-disparity map is calculated from the original disparity map. Information regarding passable spaces collected by the stereo camera is used in steering control. Backward driving requires the driver’s preemptive actions, which can be learned by experience because of the non-intuitive responses (the initial motion of the vehicle is opposite to the driver’s steering angle input). This occurs because a backward-driving vehicle is a non-minimum phase system. One of the most popular steering control algorithms is Stanley method, which is based on the feedback of lateral displacement error and heading angle error. The method is very intuitive and works well for forward driving, but it exhibits significant undershoot for backward driving cases. Furthermore, the method does not explicitly consider any constraints on control inputs and states. We designed a steering controller based on the MPC technique that requires future information but can handle constraints explicitly. Because we have near-future information from the stereo camera under limited passable spaces, MPC can be effectively implemented. We performed several simulations and experiments to show the performance and superiority of the suggested method over a simple feedback-based control algorithm.     

基于NMPC的智能汽车纵横向综合轨迹跟踪控制

本文中针对大曲率转弯工况下,智能汽车纵横向动力学特性的耦合和动力学约束导致轨迹跟踪精度和稳定性下降的问题,提出一种基于非线性模型预测控制(NMPC)的纵横向综合轨迹跟踪控制方法,通过NMPC和障碍函数法(BM)的有效结合,提高了跟踪精度,改善了行驶稳定性.首先建立四轮驱动-前轮转向智能汽车动力学模型和轨迹跟踪模型,采用...     

Robust cascade control for the horizontal motion of a vehicle with single-wheel actuators

The article presents a cascade control for the horizontal motion of a vehicle with single-wheel actuators. The outer control loop for the longitudinal and lateral accelerations and the yaw rate ensures a desired vehicle motion. By a combination of state feedback control and observer-based disturbance feedforward the inner control loop robustly stabilises the rotating and steering motions of the wheels in spite of unknown frictions between tyres and ground. Since the three degrees of freedom of the horizontal motion are affected by eight tyre forces, the vehicle considered is an over-actuated system. Thus additional control objectives can be realised besides the desired motion trajectory as, for example, a maximum in driving safety. The corresponding analytical tyre force allocation also guarantees real-time capability because of its relatively low computational effort. Provided suitable fault detection and isolation are available, the proposed cascade control has the potential of fault-tolerance, because the force allocation is adaptable. Another benefit results from the modular control structure, because it allows a stepwise implementation. Besides, it only requires a small number of measurements for control purposes. These measurements are the rotational speeds and steering angles of the wheels, the longitudinal and lateral acceleration and the yaw rate of the vehicle.     

风险情境下老年驾驶人行为特性研究

为研究风险情境下老年驾驶人与中青年驾驶人行为特性的差异,并确定老年驾驶人的眼动、心理生理、驾驶操作及风险感知等各类行为特性的衰退情况;选取19位老年驾驶人和19位中青年驾驶人作为试验对象,应用眼动仪、生理仪及驾驶模拟平台开展驾驶模拟试验;采集5种风险场景下2组驾驶人的眼动、心理、生理、操作行为与车辆运行数据;对比分析2组驾驶人的注视及扫视等眼动行为特性、心率变异及皮电等心理生理行为特性、制动及转向等操作行为特性、风险反应及敏感度等风险感知行为特性。试验结果表明：2组驾驶人的各类行为特性均随风险等级的增加呈现一定的规律性变化,随着风险等级的增加,2组驾驶人的注视持续时间、皮电均值及增长率、心率增长率和风险敏感度亦随之增加,而扫视、心率变异指标SDNN、制动时间及风险反应时间等指标随风险等级的增加而下降;上述指标的规律性变化说明驾驶人对风险的关注度和敏感度随着风险自身危险性的上升而不断增加,进而做出的反应也就越早,同时伴随着心理紧张程度增加,需要付出的努力也越大,与年龄的高低无关;另一方面,老年驾驶人的各类行为特性出现明显的衰退且与中青年驾驶人存在显著差异,其中老年驾驶人的注视持续时间、扫视幅度、扫视速度等眼动指标分别衰退了37.83%、27.58%、23.80%,皮电均值、心率增长率和SDNN心理生理指标分别衰退了57.67%、20.08%和29.14%,转向熵、车速控制和制动反应时间操作行为指标分别衰退了32.81%、20.34%和49.48%,风险敏感度、判断阈值和风险反应时间风险感知指标分别衰退了13.70%、8.66%和31.80%。通过对风险情境下老年驾驶人的各类行为特性进行详细分析,确定了老年驾驶人各类行为的衰退情况,对老年驾驶人行为特性的研究具有一定借鉴意义。     

Anti-jackknife reverse tracking control of articulated vehicles in the presence of actuator saturation

It is well known that backward motion control of an articulated vehicle is difficult because it is an open loop unstable system and such motion is also dangerous due to ‘jackknifing’. In this paper, an anti-jackknife reverse tracking control strategy for autonomous articulated vehicles is proposed based on the combined longitudinal and lateral control scheme. In the proposed lateral-longitudinal control scheme, the major task is to control the reverse heading of the trailer by automatic steering strategies that observe both the anti-jackknife condition and input limitations. The main contribution of this paper is the development of globally asymptotic anti-jackknife stabilising and tracking controls of heading angles with both state and input constraints considered a priori. The proposed control inherently has an anti-windup mechanism that prevents the hitch angle from going beyond any specified critical value to avoid jackknifing, during which time, the steering angle remains at its limit. Stability of the controller is theoretically proven via the Lyapunov argument. Effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated by CarSim and Simulink joint simulations.     

矿用无人运输车辆轨迹跟踪控制算法研究

矿用无人运输车辆作业环境恶劣,存在大曲率弯道、坡道等非结构化道路明显特征,对无人化运输控制要求高。为改善PID等传统控制算法适应性问题,提高无人驾驶轨迹跟踪的车辆横纵向控制精度,提出一种纯跟踪与PID结合的多点预瞄横向控制、考虑模糊控制表参数拟合的纵向控制方法,减少控制参数的同时提高算法效果。根据传统控制算法设计基础控制器,结合基础算法优势进行横向与纵向控制算法设计,通过硬件在环仿真和实车测试验证算法的性能。试验结果表明,横向控制算法与斯坦利算法相比,车辆路径跟踪精度有明显改善,纵向控制方面,速度跟随误差<1 km/h,保证了车辆驾驶时的平稳性与舒适性。     

Influencing driver chosen cornering speed by means of modified steering feel

This paper presents an investigation about influencing the driver's behaviour intuitively by means of modified steering feel. For a rollover indication through haptic feedback a model was developed and tested that returned a warning to the driver about too high vehicle speed. This was realised by modifying the experienced steering wheel torque as a function of the lateral acceleration. The hypothesis for this work was that drivers of heavy vehicles will perform with more margin of safety to the rollover threshold if the steering feel is altered by means of decreased or additionally increased steering wheel torque at high lateral acceleration. Therefore, the model was implemented in a test truck with active steering with torque overlay and used for a track test. Thirty-three drivers took part in the investigation that showed, depending on the parameter setting, a significant decrease of lateral acceleration while cornering.     

An investigation on motor-driven power steering-based crosswind disturbance compensation for the reduction of driver steering effort

This paper describes a lateral disturbance compensation algorithm for an application to a motor-driven power steering (MDPS)-based driver assistant system. The lateral disturbance including wind force and lateral load transfer by bank angle reduces the driver's steering refinement and at the same time increases the possibility of an accident. A lateral disturbance compensation algorithm is designed to determine the motor overlay torque of an MDPS system for reducing the manoeuvreing effort of a human driver under lateral disturbance. Motor overlay torque for the compensation of driver's steering torque induced by the lateral disturbance consists of human torque feedback and feedforward torque. Vehicle–driver system dynamics have been investigated using a combined dynamic model which consists of a vehicle dynamic model, driver steering dynamic model and lateral disturbance model. The human torque feedback input has been designed via the investigation of the vehicle–driver system dynamics. Feedforward input torque is calculated to compensate additional tyre self-aligning torque from an estimated lateral disturbance. The proposed compensation algorithm has been implemented on a developed driver model which represents the driver's manoeuvreing characteristics under the lateral disturbance. The developed driver model has been validated with test data via a driving simulator in a crosswind condition. Human-in-the-loop simulations with a full-scale driving simulator on a virtual test track have been conducted to investigate the real-time performance of the proposed lateral disturbance compensation algorithm. It has been shown from simulation studies and human-in-the-loop simulation results that the driver's manoeuvreing effort and a lateral deviation of the vehicle under the lateral disturbance can be significantly reduced via the lateral disturbance compensation algorithm.     

基于ADAMS/Car弹性运动学对整车分析的影响

ADAMS软件提供了柔性体模块,可真实地模拟物体的运动,文章以某轿车为研究对象,利用ADAMS仿真软件建立了带有弹性下控制臂悬架的整车模型。选择开环转向事件里的转向阶跃输入进行仿真分析,在后处理中对横摆角速度、车速、侧向加速度和纵向加速度进行分析。结果表明,柔性体悬架模型比多刚体悬架模型对车身的横摆角速度、侧向加速度、纵向加速度以及速度等具有更好的抑制作用,有利于提高汽车操纵稳定性。     

Effect of drowsiness on driving performance variables of commercial vehicle drivers

Driver drowsiness is a major safety concern, especially among commercial vehicle drivers, and is responsible for thousands of accidents and numerous fatalities every year. The design of a drowsiness detection system is based on identifying suitable driver-related and/or vehicle-related variables that are correlated to the driver’s level of drowsiness. Among different candidates, vehicle control variables seem to be more promising since they are unobtrusive, easy to implement, and cost effective. This paper focuses on in-depth analysis of different driver-vehicle control variables, e.g., steering angle, lane keeping, etc. that are correlated with the level of drowsiness. The goal is to find relationships and to characterize the effect of a driver’s drowsiness on measurable vehicle or driving variables and set up a framework for developing a drowsiness detection system. Several commercial drivers were tested in a simulated environment and different variables were recorded. This study shows that drowsiness has a major impact on lane keeping and steering control behavior. The correlation of the number and type of accidents with the level of drowsiness was also examined. Significant patterns in lateral position variations and steering corrections were observed, and two phases of drowsiness-related degradation in steering control were identified. The two steering degradation phases examined are suitable features for use in drowsiness detection systems.