Separating the contributions of radial flow, splay and bearing angle information to lane-keeping control

Abstract

While bearing, radial flow, and splay angle information can all contribute to accurate lane-keeping control, previous studies have reported that people rely mainly on splay angles provided by lane edges for lane keeping. In this study, we aimed to separate the contributions of these three types of visual cues to lane keeping. The displays simulated observers steering down a straight path defined by either a pair of posts (providing only bearings) or a part of lane markers (providing bearings and splay angles), and the ground plane contained no flow, sparse flow, or dense flow information. Observers used a joystick to control their movement to stay in the center of the lane while facing random perturbations to both their simulated gaze direction and their lateral position in the lane. The lateral position perturbations affected the use of radial flow, bearing, as well as splay angle cues for lane keeping, but the gaze perturbations affected the use of only bearings. We found that performance improved as more flow information was added to the scene regardless of the presence of bearings or splay angles. In the presence of splay angles, observers would ignore bearings and rely mainly on splay angles for lane keeping.