The report presents the technical details involved in selecting significant roadway disturbances, determining worst conditions using the APL/JHU hybrid simulation and full scale pilot tests, developing open loop test procedures, and evaluating closed loop test results for meaningful, i.e., safety-related, performance measures. These combined results represent a first step in specifying passenger vehicle stability against, and/or recovery from, roadway disturbance inputs. From a total of 13 candidates representing 4 different classes of roadway disturbances, 3 primary disturbance related maneuvers emerged; these were recovery from a shoulder edge dropoff, turning on high-frequency bumps, and turning on a low-frequency hump. Full scale tests with 4 vehicles and a total of 22 subjects were run on these disturbances to develop test procedures and measures that are sensitive to changes in vehicle characteristics, pertinent to transient and steady state maneuvering, and practical to implement. Tentative disturbance amplitudes are suggested.
Abstract