Integrated Speed and Steering Control Driver Model for Vehicle–Driver Closed-Loop Simulation

This paper describes an integrated speed and steering control driver model for vehicle-driver closed-loop simulation at high-speed maneuvering. In numerous research studies, the performance of vehicle control systems is validated via closed-loop computer simulations due to safety, cost, and repeatability issues. A driver model for the analysis of interactions between vehicle systems and drivers is a significant part of the validation. In particular, in developing a chassis control system, limit-driving characteristics of the actual driver, which mainly affects the performance of the system, has to be taken into consideration. Thus, the proposed driver model is developed to realize the actual driver's driving pattern. A speed control part of the proposed driver model consists of two modules, i.e., the real-time velocity planner and the motion stabilizer. The former plans the desired velocity profile from curvature information on a preview desired path in real time. The latter, i.e., the motion stabilizer, is developed to cope with losing maneuverability through deceleration because there is an obvious limitation to securing stability with velocity profile planning only. On the other hand, a steering control part of the proposed driver model utilizes the yaw-rate gain-based self-adaptation algorithm. An actual driver drives a vehicle without an exact understanding of system dynamics, and the self-adaptation algorithm is adequate for this characteristic accordingly. The proposed driver model has been validated by comparison with an expert driver's driving data, collected on the Korea International Circuit in Yeongam, Korea.