Intelligent Driving System for Safer Automobiles

Abstract

As an innovation of driver assistance technology, this research aims to develop an “Autonomous Intelligent Driving System” to prevent risk of accidents and enhance driving safety for elderly drivers in order to vitalize current aged society. The proposed system focuses on two key technologies: Risk-predictive driving intelligence model and Shared control between the driver and the assistance system. The first key technology is to embed an experienced driver model for recovering degraded performances of recognition, decision-making and operation of drivers. In the driver assistance system design, the experienced driver model contains knowledge-based “risk-prediction mechanism” to avoid accidents in risky driving situations. For instance, when passing unsignalized intersections with poor visibility, it is known that experienced drivers predict the appearance of sudden-crossing pedestrians or bicycles and then slow down the vehicle when approaching such poor visibility area and also prepare to brake in order to avoid potential collisions that might occur. The second key point is “Shared control.” This research does not aim to develop a fully-autonomous driving vehicle for them, but aims to develop an advanced driver assistance system for preventing accidents in the case that the intervention by braking or steering is needed, as well as reducing driving workload. Therefore, to realize good cooperative characteristics between the driver and the system, the shared control concept is applied to optimize the assistance level for braking and steering maneuver, minimizing the interference human driver driving maneuver. The Driving Simulator and the test vehicle are used to verify the effectiveness of the proposed intelligent driving system.