Design And Usability Research Of A Novel Steering Wheel Based On Human-Machine Interaction

The advancement of science and technology has accelerated the development of urbanization and the pace of people’s work and life.The popularity of autonomous driving technology has made people put forward new requirements for Human-Machine Interaction(HMI),how to turn autonomous vehicles into mobile offices becomes a potential research direction.Highly Automated Driving(HAD)will be the mainstream of the next phase of automobile development,at which stage drivers can engage in non-driving related tasks by interacting with the steering wheel which is also used to take-over control of the vehicle in a specific situation.Therefore,how to design a steering wheel with a certain working space(long text input for both hands)and ensuring driving safety becomes a difficult problem in the field of Human-Machine Interaction.Based on the research background of highly automated driving,this paper designs and manufactures a new type of steering wheel,which provides a certain long text input space and achieves a good automatic driving take-over control effect.The main work of the thesis is as follows:With long text input as a work task element,from an ergonomic point of view,combined with the head-up display(Head-Up Display,HUD)technology,a central stationary(for integrated physical/Touch input device)steering wheel with two(driving/working)modes is designed to realize the takeover and input functions of the steering wheel.Based on the above design idea,a three-dimensional model of steering wheel is established,and the strength analysis and structure optimization of its main supporting components are carried out by finite element and topological optimization methods respectively.Through the technology of additive manufacturing(3D printing),the prototype of the optimized steering wheel is manufactured and integrated into the driving simulator to complete the construction of the Human-Machine Interaction test system.Based on the Human-Machine Interaction test system,the usability test method is designed to evaluate the availability and user experience of the steering wheel.First,in the driving simulator,the takeover alarm mode and driving simulation scenario are designed to simulate the whole driving process.Second,22 participants with driver’s licenses are recruitedfor usability testing,and the trial obtain objective data on usability(takeover quality/typing performance)and subjective data on user experience.Finally,the statistical analysis method is used to analyze the above experimental data.The analysis results show that the designed steering wheel can significantly shorten the driver’s take-over response time and improve the take-over safety.At the same time,combined with its input performance and user experience results,the designed steering wheel has a certain practicality and appeal,helping to prevent users from abusing portable electronic input devices.