Acceptance of Haptic Shared Control Design Choices for Car Steering

Abstract

Haptic shared control systems that support drivers by means of added torques on the steering wheel are often tuned heuristically. To allow for more systematic design, this paper focuses on the Four Design Choices Architecture (FDCA) and systematically analyzes its tuning with an offline simulation model for the driver’s control behavior and neuromuscular system. These analyses indicated that within the FDCA architecture the Level of Haptic Support (LoHS), which is a feedforward channel supporting negotiation of upcoming curves, is a main contributor to joint system performance. In a driving simulator experiment, the adaptation to and acceptance of different LoHS levels was investigated. Driver acceptance was found to increase with increasing LoHS values up to 1. Objective metrics, including torque conflict (70% reduction), steering effort (81% reduction), steering wheel reversal rate, and lateral deviation all improved, indicating that with the FDCA a high LoHS is both acceptable and, in fact, preferred.