Approach to haptic guidance control in steering operation based on cooperative states between driver and control system

Abstract

Haptic guidance provides good affinity between the driver and the assist control system for steering assist control automobiles. It is expected that haptic shared control can achieve smooth transferring of automation authority between human and automated system because it involves continuous physical interaction. Many research studies have derived smooth transferring control authority between human and machine based on such environmental factors as position in a lane. However, it is difficult to change control authority smoothly when the driver's intent changes, due to difficulty of detecting such change. Thus, the present study proposes a method to estimate the cooperative relationship between human and machine in the haptic guidance control of a steering assist system. In addition, a gain-tuning control method based on detection of cooperative status is proposed. The proposed control method is applied to a lane-keeping assist control that enables the driver to change lanes smoothly. Finally, its effectiveness is demonstrated by experiment results using a driving simulator. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.