An interactive haptic force feedback interface for semi-automatic control in highly-automated vehicles

Abstract

Autonomous driving systems (ADSs) could reduce the degrees of human control, and which would result in lack of flexibility of controlling the vehicle. In this study, we proposed a method to allow the driver to control its lateral and longitudinal motions with a time lag, in order to increase the flexibility. We first derived a set of vehicle movements, such as lane changing, overtaking, merging, turning, speed changing, and parking, and related them to a set of control functions that the driver can input. We then developed a joystick-type interfaces with kinesthetic (force) and tactile (vibration) feedback for vehicle control, called haptic force feedback interface (HIF). This interface enables bidirectional interaction between the driver and the ADS, which allows the system to deny inputs from the driver due to collision danger as well as to inform environmental and vehicle states. We performed comparison experiments with a driving simulator among HIF and a previously developed hand-gesture interface (GIF), in addition to manual driving with steering wheel and pedal and autonomous driving with touchscreen interface to designate the destination. The results of experiments showed that the proposed HIF significantly reduced the average input time and input error compared with GIF, and drivers preferred the HIF due to its ability to provide immediate, active, and passive feedback, compared with manual and autonomous driving.

Keywords

• automated vehicle
• haptic force feedback
• driver-vehicle interface
• bidirectional interaction