DRIVER RESPONSE TO STEERING TORQUE DISTURBANCES: A USER STUDY ON ASSISTED LANEKEEPING

This paper describes the design and results of a user study to investigate the driver's response to torque disturbances on the vehicle handwheel. These disturbances can result from malfunctions in steering-based driver assistance systems such as lanekeeping. To guarantee the safety of these types of systems, it is vitally important to know the response of the driver-vehicle system when there is such a torque disturbance. This includes both how the driver detects the disturbance as well as what the response is. The design of handwheel torque for lanekeeping assistance has been the focus of some research, but the response of the driver to a torque disturbance has not been investigated. To this end, 18 users are tested in an experimental vehicle during highway driving situations to determine safety limits of additional handwheel torque. With various amplitudes and shapes of torques applied, the driver response is measured through the movement of the handwheel and the vehicle. Initial results suggest that for slowly increasing torques, the response of the driver is independent of the final amplitude. Presence in a turn has an effect on steering response and on the driver's rating of the car's reaction from the additional torque. No significant difference in the handwheel motion was found between the groups of older and younger users.