Analysis of head tilt strategy of car drivers

Car drivers receive the acceleration stimulation and the rotational stimulation when negotiating with a curve. In such a situation, the driver controls his/her posture such as the head and the body appropriately. It is known that the driver tilts his/her head to the direction of the curve turns. In this research, the driver's head tilt strategy in roll direction is investigated for understanding of comfortable vehicle motion. From the experimental results with a real car, high correlation is found between vehicle lateral acceleration and the driver's head roll angle. In addition, relationship between the vehicle roll angle and the driver's head movement is investigated in the experiment with a driving simulator with 1 dof motion in the roll axis. It is found that the driver adjusts his head based on the roll of the car.