Experimental analysis of driver's head motion on vehicle maneuver from the point of driving pleasure.

Improving the driver's feel for vehicle manipulation under various road conditions is one of the most important issues in the vehicle development process, although the driver's perception of vehicle motion is difficult to quantify. Even if the vehicle's motion is approximately the same under a fixed maneuvering condition, the driver sometimes distinguishes the difference in the drive feel. To analyse this, we measured the driver's head motion up to six degrees of freedom under the steady-state and transient driving conditions with two types of vehicles. The head motion on the steady-state test showed resemblance between those two types of vehicles. In contrast, transient maneuver induced some differences on the driver's head motion and also had effect from steering operation. With these tests, we could make clear the important relation between driver motion and vehicle motion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]