The report summarizes the development of meaningful test procedures and performance parameters that can be used for evaluating vehicle stability against, and/or recovery from, roadway disturbance inputs. As opposed to previous research, the disturbance selection was based on accident data surveys, survey questionnaire responses, field test evaluations, and simulation results. From these sources three primary disturbances emerged--a shoulder dropoff, high-frequency bumps, and single low-frequency hump. Open loop tests were run with four different vehicles to develop test procedures that reflected worst case conditions and that were sensitive to changes in vehicle characteristics. Closed loop tests were run with naive subjects in order to develop safety related performance measures (in terms of lane exceedance potential) that were sensitive to driver/vehicle response and that could be related to open loop procedures. A plan of action is recommended for applying test procedures and measures to the eventual specification of performance parameters and criteria. Also available in set of 3 reports PC E08, PB-265 189-SET.
Abstract