Optical flow-based control for automatic steering systems

Recently, various driving support systems have been developed to improve safety. However, because drivers occasionally feel that something is wrong, systems need to be designed on the basis of the information that drivers perceive. Therefore, we focus on optical flow, which is one of the types of visual information used by humans to improve their driving feel. Humans are said to perceive the direction of self-motion from optical flow and utilize it during driving. In our previous works, applying the optical flow model to automatic steering systems, a human-oriented system that simulates human behavior might be able to be developed. In this paper, a nonlinear controller considering camera motion is proposed to apply the optical flow model to an in-vehicle control system. The nonlinear controller is implemented to an in-vehicle control system, and in-vehicle studies are conducted. Then, experimental results are presented.