Steering control collision avoidance system and verification through subject study

Abstract

Many of vehicle crash related fatalities are caused by run-off-road crashes and failures of the drivers to avoid obstacles in front of them. This can happen in near collision encounters, where the driver should steer in order to avoid a crash. In these situations, some drivers steer too much and go off the road, and some do not steer enough and collide with the obstacle. In this study, the authors developed a steering control collision avoidance system (SCCAS) to help drivers to safely perform severe manoeuvres and avoid such crashes. This system is activated by the driver's steering input, and was implemented in a car driving simulator to study human interactions. Testing the subjects with no collision avoidance feature resulted in collision with the obstacles in 61 out of 63 encounters; whereas, using the implemented SCCAS, the subjects avoided 44 out of 60 near collision encounters in a new scenario with the same level of difficulty as the original tests. The post-experiment surveys revealed that besides the effectiveness of the system in reducing the crashes, it was acceptable to the drivers and they found the activation type intuitive.