CONSIDERATIONS CONCERNING IMPROVEMENT OF EMERGENCY EVASION PERFORMANCE

When emergency evasion during running is required, a driver sometimes causes a vehicle to drift, that is, a condition in which the rear wheels skid due to rapid steering. Under such conditions, the vehicle enters a very unstable state and often becomes uncontrollable. An unstable state of the vehicle induced by rapid steering was simulated and the effect of differential steering assistance was examined. Results indicate that, in emergency evasion while cornering and during which the vehicle begins to drift, unstable behavior like spins can be avoided by differential steering assistance and both the stability and control of the vehicle is improved remarkably. In addition, reduction of overshoot during spin evasion by the differential steering assistance has been shown to enable the vehicle to return to a state of stability in a short time in emergency evasion during straight-line running. Moreover, the effectiveness of differential steering assistance during emergency evasion was confirmed using a driving simulator.