The effect of haptic guidance on curve negotiation behavior of young, experienced drivers

Haptic feedback on the steering wheel is reported in literature as a promising way to support drivers during steering tasks. Haptic support allows drivers to remain in the direct manual control loop, avoiding known human factors issues with automation. This paper proposes haptic guidance based on the concept of shared control, where both the driver and the support system influence the steering wheel torque. The haptic guidance is developed to continuously generate relatively low forces on the steering wheel, requiring the driver's active steering input to safely negotiate curves. An experiment in a fixed-base driving simulator was conducted, in which 12 young, experienced drivers steered a vehicle - with and without haptic guidance - at a fixed speed along a road with varying curvature. The haptic guidance allowed drivers to slightly but significantly improve safety boundaries in their curve negotiation behavior. Their steering activity was reduced and smoother. The results indicated that continuous haptic guidance is a promising way to support drivers in actively producing (more) optimal steering actions during curve negotiation.