It has been established in this dissertation that sudden and unexpected accelerations of an automobile cause the driver to involuntarily turn the steering wheel. In order to study this phenomenon and later incorporate it in an overall model of an en tire "man-machine" system, an analytical model was developed which simulates the in ­ voluntary response of the driver due to a specified vehicular acceleration.

Utilizing a technique which describes a holonomic dynamical system by using superfluous coordinates, a set of kinematic restraints were imposed on an existing three-dimensional simulation of an automobile occupant. These kinematic restraints maintain both hands of the driver at specified positions on the steering wheel. The output of the analysis lists the position, velocity, acceleration of each limb of the driver, the forces of contact of the driver with the interior of the vehicle , and the involuntary steering wheel angle as functions of time.

An experimental verification was conducted using four subjects. The involuntary steering wheel response due to a lateral acceleration of each subject was determined for seven different hand positions on the steering wheel. A comparison between the experimental involuntary steering response and that generated by the an alytical sim ulation was made for fourteen runs. It was found that the simulation does predict the general involuntary steering wheel response of a driver.

Through the use of high speed movies, a comparison between experimental and analytical whole body kinematics was also made. Good correlation was also obtained for this aspect of the simulation.