Shared Steering Control Between a Driver and an Automation: Stability in the Presence of Driver Behavior Uncertainty

This paper presents an advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) for lane keeping, together with an analysis of its performance and stability with respect to variations in driver behavior. The automotive ADAS proposed is designed to share control of the steering wheel with the driver in the best possible way. Its development was derived from an H2-Preview optimization control problem, which is based on a global driver–vehicle–road (DVR) system. The DVR model makes use of a cybernetic driver model to take into account any driver–vehicle interactions. Such a formulation allows 1) considering driver assistance cooperation criteria in the control synthesis, 2) improving the performance of the assistance as a cooperative copilot, and 3) analyzing the stability of the whole system in the presence of driver model uncertainty. The results have been experimentally validated with one participant using a fixed-base driving simulator. The developed assistance system improved lane-keeping performance and reduced the risk of a lane departure accident. Good results were obtained using several criteria for human–machine cooperation. Poor stability situations were successfully avoided due to the robustness of the whole system, in spite of a large range of driver model uncertainty.