Driver model characterisation at tunnel exit with crosswind using a dynamic driving simulator

Often, strong crosswind could lead to unsafe operation of heavy vehicles. For this reason, the crosswind-high-sided lorry interaction was studied, with focus on the driver reaction. With the aid of a dynamic driving simulator, an ad-hoc scenario was created and tested. It reproduced a wind gust at the exit of a tunnel. The test was performed by 28 drivers at different vehicle and wind speeds. The gathered data were analysed to understand the general response of the driver. In the case studied, it was composed by an uncontrolled and a controlled phase. A metric based on the yaw rate signal was used to rank the drivers as 'Quick' or 'Slow'. Finally, a path-follower driver model was tuned using the experimental data. The model was able to qualitatively reproduce the controlled phase exhibited by the human drivers. More effort is needed to increase the overall accuracy of the model.