Motion Sickness Minimisation in Autonomous Vehicles Using Optimal Control

Abstract

This paper presents the application of optimal control theory in order to minimise motion sickness in autonomous vehicles. By formulating an optimal control problem, the optimum velocity profile is sought for a predefined road path from a specific starting point to a final one. Specific and given boundaries and constrains are applied in order to minimise the motion sickness without compromising the journey time. For the representation of the motion sickness as a cost function to our optimal control problem, the illness rating is used. Different case studies are investigated by changing the cost functions of our problem for a fixed road trajectory of the vehicle in three road routes by varying the road curvature. According to the results, the road with flexible lateral manoeuvrability is found to provide lower sickness as well as shorter journey time when both motion sickness and journey time are considered in the cost function.