Haptic Shared Planning and Control: Enabling Coordination of Future Actions in Human-Autonomous Vehicle Teams Through a Haptic Negotiation Interface.

ObjectiveWe examine how human-automation shared steering control combined with a haptic shape-changing interface for communicating and negotiating future intent affects driving performance and trust recovery.BackgroundSteering fights in haptic shared control can negatively impact driving performance. Existing solutions do not feature automation explicitly communicating its intent nor supporting intent negotiation with the driver. Trust recovery after faults is also expected to improve with explicit intent communication.MethodThirty participants took part in a continuous driving task consisting of 39 turns at intersections in which the pre-planned turn direction either matched or differed. Haptic communication of intent between driver and automation was metered under three conditions: From automation to driver (One-Way), in both directions (Two-Way), or not available (No-Way). Road obstacles were present at certain intersections to test handling of contingencies and faults. Automation faults were restricted to a second experimental period, leaving a third period to examine trust before and after a period of faults.ResultsDrivers in Two-Way communication displayed significantly improved driving performance when turn intents did not match. After the period of automation faults, drivers in Two-Way communication displayed significantly better overall trust recovery than drivers in One-Way or No-Way communication.ConclusionNegotiation is a viable means to avoid driver overrides and leads to improved trust recovery. Negotiation through a haptic interface should be considered an effective strategy to ensure function and cohesion in human-automation teams.ApplicationHuman-autonomy planning and team building.