Preliminary steps in understanding a target & control based driver steering model

This paper presents the preliminary steps in understanding a target & control based (T&C) driver steering model. This driver steering model was developed and verified based on vehicle test data of Double Lane Change (DLC) maneuvers. According to the data, drivers use target points located at the centerline of the lane to be changed to as references for control and determine steering rate based on a target angle error with respect to the current target point. The T&C driver model was shown to effectively capture driver's steering behavior. This paper examines the extendibility of this T&C driver steering model to other common maneuvers, such as left/right turns in intersections; the initial simulations show that this T&C model is capable of performing other maneuvers with ease, indicating its potential to be a generic driver model. Moreover, the preliminary control synthesis shows that this model exhibits plenty of stability margins for drivers to increase their control gain when necessary.