Driving Simulation Laboratory

The TTI Center for Transportation Safety is home to a Realtime Technologies, Inc. (RTI) driving simulator that provides measurements of drivers’ responses to roadway situations, in-vehicle technologies, and driving-related tasks. RTI’s SimCreator® and SimVista® software tools provide a library of different roadway cross-sections and interchanges, as well as a variety of roadway objects, buildings, and ambient traffic. In addition, custom roadway tiles can be programmed to match a specific roadway segment.

The simulator can collect a range of driving data, including vehicle speed and acceleration, lane position, proximity to specified objects or roadway elements, and inputs to the steering wheel, brake, and accelerator pedal. The simulator’s automation module can be programmed to simulate varying levels of vehicle automation, from single functions (lane-keeping, adaptive cruise control) to full automation. The steering wheel torque motor can provide a range of force feedback levels to provide the driver with vibration (haptic) alerts, assisted steering, or automated steering.

Other data collection systems can be used in conjunction with the simulator to provide additional information about driver behavior and responses:

• Eyetracking to record the driver’s glance patterns;
• Infrared thermal camera and physiological monitors (heart rate, galvanic skin response) to measure stress responses; and
• Face, hand, and foot cameras to see driver responses that may not be captured by the simulator.

Specs

Three 48-inch LCD displays (screen resolution 1920 x 1080) provide a 153-degree field of view horizontally and nearly 30 degrees vertically. An Altia configurable display allows for rapid development of customized user interfaces that interact with the RTI simulator software, and additional touch-screen displays can be configured to simulate in-vehicle interactive systems.