Influence of Steering Wheel Torque Feedback in a Dynamic Driving Simulator

A preliminary study on the role of torque feedback in the steering wheel was conducted on the Clio dynamic driving simulator at RENAULT. An experiment comparing different torque feedback strategies was conducted to evaluate the potential of driving simulators in the study of future steer-by-wire systems. The results indicate that drivers on the simulator can control their vehicles in curves with quite different torque feedback strategies, either linear or non-linear. However, zero torque or inverted torque feedback makes driving almost impossible. These observations confirm the essential role of coherent haptic information for driving real cars and simulators, and also suggest the existence of driver adaptation mechanisms in steering control. INTRODUCTION Automobile driving is often regarded as a visually-guided task, mainly due to its early description by Gibson (1). Subsequent works have identified the sources of visual information available to the driver related to vehicle control, such as time -to-contact (2), tangent point (3) and splay angle (4). However, the coupling between such variables and the motor actions applied to the vehicle commands is rarely straightforward, and require the driver to perform the sensory-motor control of a complex dynamic system. Through their initial training and further practice, drivers acquire an internal model of the dynamic behavior of their vehicle, allowing them in particular to anticipate their future course in response to their