Intuitive Maneuver of Autonomous Vehicles without Physical Control Interfaces using Wearable Sensing Devices

Autonomous vehicles are more and more likely to eliminate steering wheels, gas/brake pedals and driving shifts. However, direct controls of such vehicle by human drivers are still necessary, especially when the vehicles fail to drive as well as expected. To this end, we propose an intuitive maneuvering approach for autonomous vehicles by using a wearable device which incorporates Electromyography (EMG) and inertial measurement unit (IMU) signals. Based on goal instructions and motion planning algorithms in this approach, humans can intuitively control the accelerator/brake, steering and driving shift of a vehicle using their hand motions and gestures. This approach was implemented by a series of driving experiments in practical cases on a lab-based research vehicle. Experimental results demonstrated that by taking advantages of intuitive operations in this approach, the human can successfully and effectively control the vehicle to accomplish driving tasks in the human-vehicle intuitive maneuver system.