This thesis contains six studies investigating the impact of advanced in-vehicle information systems on the visual demands of the driver. The experiments, while self-contained were conceived to relate together in a cohesive manner. The first study investigated the reliability of visual behaviour assessment. Video tape records from experimental trials were analysed post-hoc. Significant test/retest correlations were obtained. Experiment two considered the visual demands of the driving task without intervention from new technologies. Results from road trials using an instrumented vehicle suggested changes in the subject's visual scanning which could be related to the roadway environment (i.e., rural, urban and motorway driving). In experiment three the effects of the introduction of a driver information system were assessed using a congestion warning device on public roads. System use resulted in significantly greater: subjective mental workload, glance duration and frequency, and percentage time (eyes) away from the forward view; than the in-car entertainment system, or the control (normal driving). Experiment four replicated experiment three in a fixed base driving simulator. It aimed to establish the value of the simulator for the assessment of driver visual demand. The same significant differences presented in the road trial were observed in the simulation study. In the penultimate study, opportunities for the reduction of driver visual demand were investigated. The subjects were presented with: visual, auditory or visual and auditory route guidance information. Results suggest use of auditory information to supplement visual displays significantly reduces visual demand on the driver. The final study considered the effect of information availability on the distribution of visual scanning. Driver control of in-vehicle information presentation enabled self-determination of visual scanning strategies. Information system control of information presentation was found to disrupt the driver's visual checking. The interface design was shown to force the driver to adopt different visual scanning strategies. The contribution of the experimental work to the assessment of driver visual demand is discussed and the relationships between the experiments explored.

abstract: Toward the ambitious long-term goal of a fleet of cooperating Flexible Autonomous Machines operating in an uncertain Environment (FAME), this thesis addresses several critical modeling, design and control objectives for ground vehicles. One central objective is formation of multi-robot systems, particularly, longitudinal control of platoon of ground vehicle. In this thesis, the author use low-cost ground robot platform shows that with leader information, the platoon controller can have better performance than one without it. Based on measurement from multiple vehicles, motor-wheel system dynamic model considering gearbox transmission has been developed. Noticing the difference between on ground vehicle behavior and off-ground vehicle behavior, on ground vehicle-motor model considering friction and battery internal resistance has been put forward and experimentally validated by multiple same type of vehicles. Then simplified longitudinal platoon model based on on-ground test were used as basis for platoon controller design. Hardware and software has been updated to facilitate the goal of control a platoon of ground vehicles. Based on previous work of Lin on low-cost differential-drive (DD) RC vehicles called Thunder Tumbler, new robot platform named Enhanced Thunder Tumbler (ETT 2) has been developed with following improvement: (1) optical wheel-encoder which has 2.5 times higher resolution than magnetic based one, (2) BNO055 IMU can read out orientation directly that LSM9DS0 IMU could not, (3) TL-WN722N Wifi USB Adapter with external antenna which can support more stable communication compared to Edimax adapter, (4) duplex serial communication between Pi and Arduino than single direction communication from Pi to Arduino, (5) inter-vehicle communication based on UDP protocol. All demonstrations presented using ETT vehicles. The following summarizes key hardware demonstrations: (1) cruise-control along line, (2) longitudinal platoon control based on local information (ultrasonic sensor) without inter-vehicle communication, (3) longitudinal platoon control based on local information (ultrasonic sensor) and leader information (speed). Hardware data/video is compared with, and corroborated by, model-based simulations. Platoon simulation and hardware data reveals that with necessary information from platoon leader, the control effort will be reduced and space deviation be diminished among propagation along the fleet of vehicles. In short, many capabilities that are critical for reaching the longer-term FAME goal are demonstrated. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Electrical Engineering 2016