Citation

Katzourakis DI, de Winter JCF, Alirezaei M, Corno M, Happee R. IEEE Trans. Syst Man. Cybern. Syst. 2014; 44(5): 621-629.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)

DOI

10.1109/TSMC.2013.2263129

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper presents a driving simulator experiment, which evaluates a road-departure prevention (RDP) system in an emergency situation. Two levels of automation are evaluated: 1) haptic feedback (HF) where the RDP provides advisory steering torque such that the human and the machine carry out the maneuver cooperatively, and 2) drive by wire (DBW) where the RDP automatically corrects the front-wheels angle, overriding the steering-wheel input provided by the human. Thirty participants are instructed to avoid a pylon-confined area while keeping the vehicle on the road. The results show that HF has a significant impact on the measured steering wheel torque, but no significant effect on steering-wheel angle or vehicle path. DBW prevents road departure and tends to reduce self-reported workload, but leads to inadvertent human-initiated steering resulting in pylon collisions. It is concluded that a low level of automation, in the form of HF, does not prevent road departures in an emergency situation. A high level of automation, on the other hand, is effective in preventing road departures. However, more research may have to be done on the human response while driving with systems that alter the relationship between steering-wheel angle and front-wheels angle.

Keywords

advisory steering torque; Automation; collision avoidance; DBW; Drive by wire (DBW); drive-by-wire; driving simulation; driving simulator experiment; emergency maneuver; emergency obstacle avoidance; emergency situation; front-wheels angle; Hafnium; haptic feedback; haptic feedback (HF); Haptic interfaces; Poles and towers; pylon collisions; RDP system; road traffic control; road-departure prevention; road-departure prevention (RDP); Roads; shared control; steering assist; steering force feedback; steering systems; steering wheel torque; steering-wheel angle; torque control; vehicle path; Vehicles; Wheels