The Influence of Vehicle Aerodynamic and Control Response Characteristics on Driver-Vehicle Performance

The effects of changes in understeer, control sensitivity, and location of the lateral aerodynamic center of pressure of a typical passenger vehicle on the driver's opinion and on the performance of the driver-vehicle system were studied in the moving-base driving simulator at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Twelve subjects with no prior experience on the simulator and no special driving skills performed regulation tasks in the presence of both random and step wind gusts. The lower weights and moments of inertia of future passenger vehicles can be expected to change the effect of wind gusts making the evaluation of aerodynamic and control response characteristics on closed-loop wind disturbance regulation a matter of increased interest.