Performance of Four-Wheel-Steering Vehicles in Lane Change Maneuvers

This study addresses the performance of four-wheel-steering vehicles in high-speed lane change maneuvers. We first compare the recorded steering command of an experienced driver in executing a lane change maneuver with that determined via solving a suitably formulated optimization problem, and found them to be qualitatively comparable. This finding allows us to analytically compare the optimal lane change performance achievable with both two and four wheel steering vehicles. For a representative high-speed lane change maneuver, our study revealed that, in the hands of an experienced driver, the performance benefit achievable with four-wheel-steering vehicles is not significant. This conclusion is in agreement with road-test results obtained with two production four-wheel-steering vehicles. The applicability of the proposed “optimal control” approach in evaluating the performance of other driver-vehicle maneuvers is an interesting topic for future study.