Influencing driver chosen cornering speed by means of modified steering feel

Abstract

This paper presents an investigation about influencing the driver's behaviour intuitively by means of modified steering feel. For a rollover indication through haptic feedback a model was developed and tested that returned a warning to the driver about too high vehicle speed. This was realised by modifying the experienced steering wheel torque as a function of the lateral acceleration. The hypothesis for this work was that drivers of heavy vehicles will perform with more margin of safety to the rollover threshold if the steering feel is altered by means of decreased or additionally increased steering wheel torque at high lateral acceleration. Therefore, the model was implemented in a test truck with active steering with torque overlay and used for a track test. Thirty-three drivers took part in the investigation that showed, depending on the parameter setting, a significant decrease of lateral acceleration while cornering.

Keywords:

• steering feel
• steering feel modification
• heavy truck
• driving tests
• driver behaviour
• rollover

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Tom Nyström and posthumously Rickard Lyberger at Scania. Moreover, Annika Stensson Trigell, Daniel Wanner and Johannes Edrén at KTH Vehicle Dynamics and all test drivers for their support during the course of this work.

Funding

The authors are pleased to acknowledge the financial support of Scania and FFI (Swedish Strategic Vehicle Research and Innovation Program).

Notes

1. The JND is the smallest difference between two stimuli which a person can feel. The JND can vary between human beings. The absolute threshold is a special case of the JND where the comparative stimulus is equal to zero.