Abstract
This study presents the design of a function that assists drivers of commercial vehicles in congested traffic situations. Such function, named Vehicle Follow Control (VFC), was designed by a combination of a systems engineering approach for the control design and a user-centered design approach for the Human-Machine Interaction (HMI) design. The control design process was based on the CAFCR method. First, the customer and user wishes were identified. Second, the system requirements were defined. Third, the functional architecture and the controller were designed. Simultaneously, the HMI was designed around the user involvement at all design stages.. The Verification and Validation phase was performed according to the V-cycle model. The function was validated with several users on a fully functional prototype implemented in a commercial vehicle. Both the functionality and the HMI were designed through multiple iterations. This study yielded several practical results. The CAFCR method allowed to define a set of system requirements which were translated into a dynamic model. Multiple HMI design concepts were created and refined according to the user feedback. The recommendations for future development were formulated according to feedback provided by users during the field validations.
KEYWORDS – Autonomous driving, Rapid Prototyping, Supervisory and Dynamic Control, Human Machine Interaction, CAFCR