Steffi Mehring

The Daimler-Benz steering assistant: a spin-off from autonomous driving

Based on the experience gained during 3000 km of autonomous driving on public highways, the Daimler-Benz steering assistant has been developed. As a link between purely manual and autonomous driving, this system supports the driver in keeping his lateral position on the lane while he remains in full control of the vehicle. It reduces the drivers steering task to global positioning, thus relieving him of the permanent fine tuning. To achieve this and compensate for environmental disturbances, the steering angle commanded by the driver is slightly modified by adding a correcting value via a small actuator. The hardware and software limit the controllers action to guarantee safety. Image processing is used to obtain the needed vehicle position and orientation on the road. System simulation on the Daimler-Benz driving simulator in Berlin reveal a considerable improvement of the vehicles straight-running properties, especially in curves. Test drivers accept this new system very well. Experiments on public roads with our test vehicle confirm these results.

Optische Spurhaltung – Eine Unterstützung des Fahrers bei der Lenkaufgabe

Optical Lane Keeping a support for the driver during the steering task The here described system supports the driver in keeping his lateral position on the lane while he remains in full control of the vehicle. It relieves him of the permanent fine tuning, thus reducing the drivers steering task to global positioning. To achieve this and compensate for environmental disturbances, the steering angle commanded by the driver is slightly modified by adding a correcting value via a small actuator. Hardand software limit the controllers action to guarantee safety. Image processing is used to obtain the needed vehicle position and orientation on the road. System simulations on the Daimler-Benz driving simulator reveal a considerable improvement of the vehicles straight-running properties. Experiments on public roads confirm these results.

The Comfort Highway Copilot-An Advanced Driving Assistance System

Abstract In this paper the DaimlerChrysler contribution to the project Driving Assistance Strategies which was a part of the German joint research programme MoTiV (Mobility and Transportation within an intermodal traffic) is presented. To support the driver in highway driving tasks an advanced driving assistance system was developed at DaimlerChrysler which combines the longitudinal and lateral vehicle guidance. An experimental vehicle was equipped with image processing and an electronic steering system. To explore the acceptance and handling of this driving assistance system a Man Machine Interface with different user versions was developed. In order to ensure the highest system safety level an extensive safety process was performed. The paper concludes in the main results of the field tests regarding the acceptance of the tested advanced driving assistance systems.