Driving assistance system for welfare vehicle using virtual platoon control with augmented reality

Recently, welfare vehicles are widely used among the elderly and the aged. However, it is not easy for inexperienced aged to control the welfare vehicle in narrow places such as elevators and narrow corridors. In this paper, driving assistance system for the welfare vehicle which is controlled based on Augmented Reality (AR) is proposed. It is supposed that cognitive ability from the objective viewpoint is enhanced. First, a concept of the virtual platoon control with a virtual preceding vehicle and a real following vehicle is outlined; a virtual preceding vehicle projected on Head Mounted Display (HMD) is steered virtually with an objective viewpoint, and the real vehicle that the aged rides on is followed so as to drive without collision with obstacles. Finally, the proposed control system is assessed by trial runs using the welfare vehicle STAVi, and the effectiveness using the assistance system with AR is evaluated by a driving experiment in narrow spaces.