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A driving simulator experiment is presented investigating different road departure prevention (RDP) setups. To induce the risk of road departure, thirty test drivers were asked to avoid a pylon-confined area (obstacle) while keeping the vehicle within the road limits. The RDP system intervened by applying a haptic-feedback (i.e., haptic shared control) and/or correcting the steering angle (i.e., drive-by-wire (DBW) input-mixing shared control) in the event that a vehicle road departure was likely to occur. The system that determines the correcting steering input is a RDP controller based on the driver's inputs. The results showed that DBW effectively helped drivers to stay within road limits and reduced workload. The haptic shared control had a significant influence on the measured steering torque, but limited effect on the steering wheel angle and the vehicle path. The DBW system resulted in drivers making counter-corrections demoting their performance. In conclusion, shared control for RDP is effective, although more research needs to be conducted regarding the human response in situations where the relationship between the steering wheel angle and the front wheels' steering angle is altered while driving

A driver-assistance system (DAS) that combines an automatic road departure avoidance (RDA) system with the driver's steering input is presented. The system is based on a closed-loop driver decision estimator (DDE), which establishes the risk of road departure. If a road departure is likely to occur, the RDA system intervenes by correcting the steering angle. Robustness is guaranteed by an ${cal H}_{rm inf}$ controller designed to take into consideration the main uncertainties affecting the dynamics. Driver-in-the-loop tests evaluate the performance of the system in terms of robustness, risk of road departure, and driving experience. Experiments show that the system is effective in reducing the risk of road departure without impeding maneuverability

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This paper presents a driving simulator experiment, which evaluates a road-departure prevention (RDP) system in an emergency situation. Two levels of automation are evaluated: 1) haptic feedback (HF) where the RDP provides advisory steering torque such that the human and the machine carry out the maneuver cooperatively, and 2) drive by wire (DBW) where the RDP automatically corrects the front-wheels angle, overriding the steering-wheel input provided by the human. Thirty participants are instructed to avoid a pylon-confined area while keeping the vehicle on the road. The results show that HF has a significant impact on the measured steering wheel torque, but no significant effect on steering-wheel angle or vehicle path. DBW prevents road departure and tends to reduce self-reported workload, but leads to inadvertent human-initiated steering resulting in pylon collisions. It is concluded that a low level of automation, in the form of HF, does not prevent road departures in an emergency situation. A high level of automation, on the other hand, is effective in preventing road departures. However, more research may have to be done on the human response while driving with systems that alter the relationship between steering-wheel angle and front-wheels angle.