Skip to main content

Research driving simulators in science

Numerous laboratories in the world work with research driving simulators nowadays to perform experimental research into human driver behaviour, human factors, man machine interfaces or basic psychological research. One of the first research driving simulators was developed in the 90ties at the Traffic Research Center in Groningen, then a lab of the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, that was aimed at traffic research.

Research driving simulators are used for several purposes:

  • Behaviour research into driving behaviour. This is usually at Universities, especially traffic behaviour research groups with a focus on psychological research
  • Human factors research. This is usually aimed at studies into workload while interacting with in-vehicle devices, measurement of effects of distractions, for example while using a cell phone while driving. UIsers can be universities of car manufacturers
  • Attention and psychological functions. Car driving is an example of a complex task that consists of multiple subtasks that are performed simultaneously. So this task is interesting for studies into divided attention, prolonged task performance and fatigue (sustained attention), learning and task automation, effects of alcohol, drugs and medication, etc. Clinical studies into special groups with brain injury, effects of aging etc. all fall into this category.
  • Effects of design considerations on driving performance. This is typically studies by research groups of car manufacturers.


Research driving simulators typically consist of:

  • realtime driving simulations where the subject driver around a virtual world in a virtual car with a steering wheel, pedals, gear shifter and actuators
  • a measurement system for measuring data such as looking behaviour, use of actuators, position on the road, headway to lead vehicles, time to intersection, time to collision, standard deviation of lateral position, etc
  • a tool to design simulations and experiments. This may be a graphical tool or a script language. Script languages usually take longer to learn but they are more flexible and give the user generally more functionality
  • a tool to develop virtual environments.







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Decelerations and simulator sickness in a driving simulator

One of the most important reasons why driving simulators are sometimes frowned at by driving instructors is that instructors themselves often experience simulator sickness when driving in a driving simulator. Because the become nauseous, they develop a strong aversive reaction but they also start to drive very poorly. And from that they conclude that driving simulators are not suited for training young people. In contrast, young inexperienced drivers almost never experience simulator sickness. So, although for more experienced drivers, a simulator has this disadvantage, it is suitable as a training method for young inexperienced drivers: the precise target group for driver training. In a number of driving simulators, simulator sickness is being handled by using a motion platform. This results in a high price and thats why these high-end simulators are usually not used for driver training, because no driving school can afford these systems. Also, there is not much evidence that a mot...
Post a Comment
Read more

Part-task simulation and automation training

In a car driving simulator for driver training , the practice of lessons in a learner car is simulated. These can be more appropriately referred to as 'driving lessons simulators'. Sometimes driving teachers wonder what this would be better than the existing way of driver training, since they already use a learner car. Carnetsoft facilitates a different didactic rule, that is based on sound scientific research. During driver skill training, part tasks have to be automated (automation training) by task-directed practice. Each part task training, like driving off in first gear, steering or gear changing, starts with a controlled instruction training that focusses on instruction and training of that part task. After that, there's automation training of that specific part task. During the simulated task training, the degree of automation is measured using the Peripheral Detection Task (PDT). This is a method for measuring taskload and controlled/automatic processing that was d...
Post a Comment
Read more

Low cost versus high costs driving simulators

Driving simulators are used for various purposes. Driver training simulators for driver training come in very different price classes. For example, a desktop driving simulator from Carnetsoft with a complete driver training curriculum is available for less than 5000 euro. However, most driver training simulators cost more than 15000 euro, and yet these are still considers to be low cost. Examples are the driving simulators of STISIM , ST Software and Green Dino . STISim offers both desktop systems and cockpit systems. ST Software and Green Dino both sell cockpit simulators. The big difference between a desktop simulator and a cockpit simulator is that a cockpit simulator has a construction with a car seat attached. In cockpit simulators the controls can be real vehicle controls, but in most cases adapted game steering wheel and pedals are used. If a simulator manufacturer advertizes with real vehicle controls, then in most cases the force feedback and feel is not better at all compa...
Post a Comment
Read more