Abstract

BERBER-SOLANO, T.P.; GIACOMIN, J.A.  and  AJOVALASIT, M.. Effect of steering wheel acceleration frequency distribution on detection of road type. Ingenier. mecáni. tecnolog. desarroll [online]. 2013, vol.4, n.4, pp.145-151. ISSN 1665-7381.

A laboratory-based experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of the vibrational energy distribution on the human detection of road surface type by means of steering wheel vibration. The study used steering wheel tangential direction acceleration time histories which had been measured in a mid-sized European automobile that was driven over three different types of road surface. The steering acceleration stimuli were manipulated by means of digital Butterworth filters which were used to eliminate five selected frequency ranges from the steering wheel vibration spectrum in the interval from 0 to 150 Hz. The experiment was performed in three parts, one for each road surface studied in which a photograph of one of the three road surfaces was shown. The photograph shown was an image approximately similar to what a driver sees of the road during driving. Fifteen test participants were exposed to both unmanipulated and manipulated steering wheel tangential vibration stimuli, and were asked to indicate, by either "yes" or "no", whether the actuated acceleration stimulus was from the road surface whose photograph was shown on the board directly in front of the test bench. The findings suggest that the frequency band from 20 to 60 Hz, which is most often associated with specific resonances of the steering system such as the column and tyres, plays a key role in the human detection of road surface type in driving situations.

Keywords : Perception; information; road detection; vibration; automobile steering wheel.