Home

Information on:
Research
People
Events

Information for:
Industry
Postgraduates
Undergraduates

Links
Contact

© David Cole

Research

Driver-Vehicle Dynamics

Publications on driver-vehicle dynamics are available here.

It is increasingly recognized that road vehicles usually operate in closed-loop with the driver and that realistic driver control models are needed to allow vehicle dynamic behaviour to be optimized. The increasing use of computer-controlled chassis components, with their associated design freedom, makes accurate prediction of closed-loop behaviour a particularly important need.

Unfortunately the control behaviour of the driver is not well understood. Mathematical models are either very simple or unvalidated. This means that closed-loop responses of the driver-vehicle system cannot be predicted confidently. This lack of prediction ability limits the extent to which the benefits of advanced chassis technology can be realized.

The block diagram summarizes the way in which the DVD Group is addressing the need for improved models of driver control. The blue block represents the nonlinear vehicle dynamics, with the nonlinearity arising mainly from tyre friction saturation. The three green blocks represent the main elements of the driver's control behaviour. The neuromuscular system (NMS) block represents the driver's actuators (muscles) and sensors (muscle spindles, skin receptors, Golgi tendons etc).

The driver learns ('identifies') an internal model of the vehicle and NMS dynamics. As the driver's experience with the vehicle increases, the accuracy of the internal model improves. The internal model is then used by the driver's predictive control strategy to determine the optimum muscle activation signals at each time step, which in turn lead to steering and throttle/brake inputs to the vehicle. Sensory feedback from the NMS and the vehicle informs the learning process and the predictive control.

Publications on driver-vehicle dynamics are available here.

Vehicle Dynamics

The Group's work in driver-vehicle dynamics builds upon extensive experience in vehicle dynamics: