Design of Haptic Protection with an Adaptive Level of Authority Based on Risk Indicators under Hands-on Partial Driving Automation

Abstract

In the context of hands-on partial driving automation, drivers engage in a combination of lane centering system (LCS) and adaptive cruise control (ACC). In lane change scenarios, what should the system do, if it detects the approach of vehicle in the blind spot? Humans with powerful and intelligent machine sometimes suffer from such as automation surprises and distrust in automation. By contrast, haptic and continuous information would enable the driver to virtually touch their potentially hazardous environment. In this study, we propose the haptic protection with an adaptive level of authority that can be turned based on risk indicators, i.e., T T C and T HW , in the blind spot scenarios. In haptic guidance systems, the artificial stiffness around the controller's desired steering angle is used as the level of haptic authority to guide the driver to normative behavior. On the other hand, in the proposed protection system, the artificial stiffness around the driver's desired steering angle is used as the level of haptic authority to warn the driver about their erroneous action. Thus, the definition of the level of haptic authority (LoHA) is different between the guidance-type and protection-type in terms of the objective. In a simulation with a parameter space of lane change scenarios, this study highlighted the combined impact of the haptic guidance and haptic protection on the driver bahavior. Results indicated that the use of the proposed haptic protection can enable the drivers to recognize their inappropriate actions.

Shared control versus traded control in driving: a debate around automation pitfalls

“…Together with colleagues in the shared control community, this concept was extended to lateral control, exploring different design options, including adjustments of the steering wheel stiffness (e.g. Abbink and Mulder 2009;Saito et al 2021). With haptic shared control for lane-keeping (commercially available as active lane-keeping or lanekeeping assist), drivers continuously feel the automation's intentions to steer, which they can follow or correct, without prompting the automation to switch off.…”