Development of Automatic Steering System by Modeling Human Behavior Based on Optical Flow

Abstract

Recently, various driving support systems have been developed to improve safety. However, because drivers occasionally feel that something is wrong, systems need to be designed based on information that drivers perceive. Therefore, we focused on optical flow, which is one of the visual information used by humans to improve driving feel. Humans are said to perceive the direction of self-motion from optical flow and also utilize it during driving. Applying the optical flow model to automatic steering systems, a human-oriented system might be able to be developed. In this paper, we derive the focus of expansion (FOE) in the frame of a camera that is the direction of self-motion in optical flow and propose a nonlinear control method based on the FOE. The effectiveness of the proposed method was verified through a vehicle simulation, and the results showed that the proposed method simulates human behavior. Based on these results, this approach may serve as a foundation of human-oriented system designs.