Proceedings of the 1st Human-Centered Transportation Simulation Conference

Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, Technical Reference Center2001PDFProceedingsSheridan, Thomas B.Young, P. W.Ngo, D.Calef, K.Bachelder, E.Cooper, J.Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Aeronautics and AstronauticsUniversity of IowaUnited StatesDriving simulatorsHybrid simulationTechnological innovationsA novel approach to driving simulation is described, one that potentially overcomes the limitations of both motion fidelity and cost. It has become feasible only because of recent advances in computer-based image generation speed and fidelity and in inertial platform development. Potentially it is both very cheap and very realistic, although there are some obvious restrictions to its use. This is a report on the concept and on initial efforts to implement and demonstrate it. The test driver in this case drives a real car or truck on a real pavement, but the collision hazards that are presented are computer-generated virtual reality. There are several alternative means to display the scene ahead: closed-circuit video (using a head-mounted or vehicle-mounted display), direct vision through a half-silvered mirror, computer-generated virtual reality, or a combination. Since the driver is controlling a real vehicle the motion is perfectly faithful to actual reality; there is simply no need for any artificial mechanism to produce the motion experience. An inertial measurement unit plus real-time computation are required to make the hazard image faithful to steering and forward velocity and acceleration. This paper describes the technical options, the technical problems, initial experiments with the concept, and research that needs to be done.119