The Application of Moving Base Systems in Driving Simulators with Special Regard to the Sensation of Yaw Movements

Abstract

Driving simulators involve the capability of simulating critical and dangerous driving situations up to the limits of active safety. They are employed for investigating the interactions of the driver-vehicle system under reproducible and non-dangerous conditions. Because of their flexibility they are well established in scientific research. They are mainly used in current automotive fields of research like driver assistance and autonomous driving systems. The development of assistance systems makes the human being as the directly concerned component irreplaceable in the development process. Here the use of driving simulators has become an essential element, because they offer the possibility to integrate the human being as a real part into the simulation environment. It must be considered that the circuit of information has to be the same as under real driving conditions. Otherwise the results are not transferable. This paper deals with the possibilities of presenting all information to the driver, which are necessary to give him a realistic impression of driving. A main subject is the sensation of yaw-movements, which could be of interest when novel kinds of moving base systems are designed.Key words: Driving simulator, yaw movements, thresholds of perception. The Information Loop Driver-VehicleIn a driving simulator the driver should be exposed to the same circuit of information, see Fig. 1, as in case of driving a real vehicle so that a comparable reaction can be expected. Instead of the fully engineered vehicle, however, technical devices are used as substitutes to provide suitable information.In order to present this information to the driver, an important part of the simulation system is the driving environment, which acts as an interface to the human being. Besides the visual and haptic information the motion, which means the vestibular information, is one of the most important ones. In many cases the reaction of the driver depends on the visual and the mechanical information that he gets from the current driving situation. Therefore mainly in critical situations the quality of the information contributes to the characteristic of the driver's reaction. Sensation of AccelerationsThe importance of simulating motion in a driving simulator is caused by the fact that without motion simulation it often comes to the phenomenon called cinesia-motion sickness. Cinesia appears, if there is a discrepancy within the sensory perception. That is the case, when the visual information channel is aware of other movements than the vestibular channel. Cinesia effects occur, if e.g. a passenger in a vehicle reads a newspaper. While a static picture is visually conveyed, the driver receives, however, via his vestibular organ a motion information. This discrepancy at the sensory D DAVID PUBLISHING