Recording drivers' situational awareness for adaptive co-operative handover strategies in automated driving

In the case of autonomous driving, handovers of vehicle control between the vehicle and the driver are foreseen in automation levels 3 and 4. The time of the handover, in which the driver can take over the control of the vehicle, but also the quality in which the driving tasks are resumed, play a central role. To ensure that a handover succeeds well, the action of the vehicle must be optimally adapted to the driver's condition and current situational awareness.

The joint project SituWare is concerned with researching and developing a system for recording and modelling the driver's situational awareness. By predicting the current state of the driver's information processing and adapting interaction strategies for the driver and the vehicle, both handovers and the vehicle's automation behaviour are to be optimised. In this way, a faster and more complete handover can take place and driver acceptance of vehicle automation is increased.

In the project, we support the collaborative partners in defining relevant application scenarios, use cases and test scenarios as well as in evaluating system components. However, our focus is also on the development of a memory framework that models the decay of driving-relevant memory content. This component contributes to the assessment of situation awareness and supports the development of adaptive interaction strategies.

SituWare is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action.