Design of a Rally Driver Support System using Ecological Interface Design Principles

Abstract

Cornering during rally driving is a difficult task, because the rally car is a complex non-linear system and the driver has limited knowledge of the geometry of the road that lies ahead. New technologies and Ecological Interface Design principles provide new opportunities to design a replacement of the current support system, provided by a copilot and pacenotes, that demand high levels of cognitive processing. An abstraction hierarchy provides insight in the relevant system constraints: performance, curve and velocity, acceleration, wheel slip and control inputs. A head up display is designed, using an ideal line mapped on the road surface for guidance purposes. The support system consists of two prediction curves: a trajectory curve that delivers a prediction of the cars’ path when the current acceleration is maintained; and a second curve, called boundary curve, which shows the drivers’ affordances regarding maximum lateral and longitudinal accelerations.