Driving assistance through pedal reaction force control with consideration of JND

In this study, a driving assistive system using an active force control for an accelerator pedal is proposed. First, using a driving simulator embedded with a haptic pedal mechanism, driver's just noticeable difference (JND) against the force perception on the pedal was investigated experimentally. Second, an algorithm of the conscious/unconscious assistive control is presented by utilizing the identified JND. Through verification experiment on the same simulator, the conscious assistive was successful with a probability of 83%. However, the unconscious assistive was failed with a probability of 79% and the drivers noticed the assist with a probability of 73%.