Simulation Based Evaluation of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems

Abstract: Road transportation is an essential element of mobility in most countries and we can observe an increasing demand for both goods and passenger traffic. There are however important societal and economical problems related to road transportation in terms of congestions, traffic safety and environmental effects. During the last decades vehicles have increasingly been equipped with different types of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). These systems can to some extent compensate for human behaviour and errors that cause congestions, accidents and air pollution. Most studies conducted to evaluate ADAS have focused on ADAS impacts on the driver or on the vehicle. Since an ADAS might influence not only driving behaviour and vehicle dynamics, but also the interaction between equipped and non-equipped vehicles, it is also important to consider the resulting effect on the traffic system. A reliable and realistic evaluation approach needs to include estimations of drivers’ decisions in different traffic situations with respect to the ADAS functionality and how such decisions affect the traffic system as a whole.The overall aim of the thesis is to develop a simulation based evaluation framework for investigations of impacts of different types of cruise controllers on the traffic system. The objective is also to apply the framework to evaluate a fuel minimizing cruise controller for trucks, the Look Ahead Cruise Control (LACC). The framework developed consists of a combination of a microscopic traffic simulation model, and a vehicle and ADAS simulation model. When applied for a specific ADAS, as for example the LACC, the framework needs to be complemented with a driver model that captures the changes in driving behaviour due to the system of interest. In this thesis a driver model for LACC equipped trucks was developed based on results from a driving simulator experiment, a field operational test, and a focus group study. Simulation experiments were carried out to observe the LACC impacts on the traffic system with respect to penetration rate, traffic density, and variation in the desired speed. Environmental effects were estimated using emission calculations.