Direct and Indirect Haptic Aiding for Curve Negotiation

Haptic technology has become a viable way to support operators in vehicular control. This paper investigates two different design philosophies for continuous haptic feedback to support drivers with curve negotiation. The first system, 'direct haptic assistance', is designed to yield best results when the driver gives way to the guidance forces on the steering wheel. The second, 'indirect haptic assistance', is designed to yield best results when the driver counter-acts the forces. The two designs were compared in a driving simulator experiment in which 27 subjects participated. Results show that both systems are helpful in case of low visibility, where the driver lacks sufficient preview of the curves. With normal visibility no improvements on performance were found, for either system. Further experiments are required to investigate the difference between the two approaches.