Risk-Sensitive Rear-Wheel Steering Control Method Based on the Risk Potential Field

Abstract

Various driving assistance systems have been developed to reduce the number of automobile accidents. However, the control laws of these assistance systems differ based on each situation, and the discontinuous control command value may be input instantaneously. Therefore, a seamless and unified control law for driving assistance systems that can be used in multiple situations is necessary to realize more versatile autonomous driving. Although studies have been conducted on four-wheel steering that steers the rear wheels, these studies considered the role of the rear wheels only to improve vehicle dynamics and not to contribute to autonomous driving. Therefore, in this study, we define the risk potential field as a uniform control law and propose a rear-wheel steering control system that actively steers the rear wheels to contribute to autonomous driving, depending on the level of the perceived risk in the driving situation. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by a double lane change test, which is performed assuming emergency avoidance in simulations, and subject experiments using a driving simulator. The results indicate that actively steering the rear wheels ensures a safer and smoother drive while simultaneously improving the emergency avoidance performance.