Driver Behaviour Characterization Using an Instrumented Steering Wheel Conscious/Unconscious Muscle Activation

The paper presents an Instrumented Steering Wheel (ISW) that measures the forces and moments that the driver applies at each hand. The ISW is equipped with two six-axis load cells and has the same inertia of a reference steering wheel fitted on normal production cars. The ISW is used to assess the conscious or unconscious application of forces at the steering wheel during a set of manoeuvres. The conscious steering actions refer both to sinusoidal steering input and handling circuit driving. A statistical analysis is performed to characterize the conscious driver behaviour. Referring to unconscious activation of muscles, a kick-plate pass-by manoeuvre is studied. Several drivers are employed for such tests. Typical behavioural patterns are found, describing how drivers apply forces and moments in conscious steering actions. The unconscious moment applied during a kick-plate manoeuvre may be even 20% of the maximum torque applied during counter-steering. The results can be used to develop new driver models, additionally, the ISW is proposed as a tool for properly defining the ADAS intervention logic to reduce the intrusiveness feeling felt by the driver and increase safety in case of unconscious steering actions.