Manual control theory and data provide a new approach to understanding the process of steering an automobile. Potentially good perceptual cues can be identified, and a useful framework is provided for interpreting experimental and accident data.
Summary--The view point and principles of guidance and control theory provide the basis for analyzing the dynamics of driver steering control of motor vehicles. The resultant driver/vehicle system has as its elements the vehicle equations of motion, experimentally derived models for the human operator's dynamic response characteristics, and descriptions of the roadway environment. A variety of single-loop and multiloop systems are synthesized and examined to select several good, simple, and likely alternative configurations: time-advanced lateral deviation, path angle (or rate) plus inertial lateral deviation, and heading angle (or rate) plus inertial lateral deviation. These do not included all the possible multiloop driver/vehicle structures potentially capable of satisfying guidance and control requirements, but they do provide good performance in commandfollowing and disturbance regulation, insensitivity to variations in the driver's dynamic adaptation, and good predicted subjective opinion fiom the driver. They are not inconsistent with perceptual data from recent driver experiments. The resultant models provide a new framework for devising future experiments, and can aid the vehicle and highway design process.