The Daimler-Benz steering assistant: a spin-off from autonomous driving

Based on the experience gained during 3000 km of autonomous driving on public highways, the Daimler-Benz steering assistant has been developed. As a link between purely manual and autonomous driving, this system supports the driver in keeping his lateral position on the lane while he remains in full control of the vehicle. It reduces the driver's steering task to global positioning, thus relieving him of the permanent fine tuning. To achieve this and compensate for environmental disturbances, the steering angle commanded by the driver is slightly modified by adding a correcting value via a small actuator. The hardware and software limit the controllers action to guarantee safety. Image processing is used to obtain the needed vehicle position and orientation on the road. System simulation on the Daimler-Benz driving simulator in Berlin reveal a considerable improvement of the vehicle's straight-running properties, especially in curves. Test drivers accept this new system very well. Experiments on public roads with our test vehicle confirm these results.