Human Sensitivity in Forced Feedback Systems as a Function of Frequency and Amplitude of Steering Wheel Vibrations

A warning system is described as, that improves safety in an over the road truck application by warning the driver with steering wheel vibration of impending roll over. This work focuses on creating a Haptic feedback and the corresponding driver response to a range of frequencies and amplitudes of vibration at the steering wheel. The haptic feedback system is the endpoint of the entire warning system. An experimental road going system is designed, presented, and tested. The experimental data reveals information about the response of the human subject to the frequency of steering wheel vibration, while driving a vehicle. Data variability is investigated through sampling of a population of drivers. The experimental setup probing the amplitude and frequency information is analyzed. Objective measurement anomalies in the data were seen in the subjective tests as well. Some conclusions are given about the applicability of laboratory tests to moving vehicle tests.