DReyeVR: Democratizing Virtual Reality Driving Simulation for Behavioural & Interaction Research

TL;DR

DReyeVR is an open-source, cost-effective VR driving simulator platform designed for behavioral and interaction research, featuring eye tracking, customizable scenarios, and compatibility with research tools.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive, affordable VR driving simulator built on Unreal Engine and CARLA, tailored for behavioral research with customizable features.

Findings

Cost of setup under $5000 USD

Features include eye tracking, HUD, and traffic scenarios

Demonstrated use case for interaction research

Abstract

Simulators are an essential tool for behavioural and interaction research on driving, due to the safety, cost, and experimental control issues of on-road driving experiments. The most advanced simulators use expensive 360 degree projections systems to ensure visual fidelity, full field of view, and immersion. However, similar visual fidelity can be achieved affordably using a virtual reality (VR) based visual interface. We present DReyeVR, an open-source VR based driving simulator platform designed with behavioural and interaction research priorities in mind. DReyeVR (read "driver") is based on Unreal Engine and the CARLA autonomous vehicle simulator and has features such as eye tracking, a functional driving heads-up display (HUD) and vehicle audio, custom definable routes and traffic scenarios, experimental logging, replay capabilities, and compatibility with ROS. We describe the hardware required to deploy this simulator for under $5000$ USD, much cheaper than commercially available simulators. Finally, we describe how DReyeVR may be leveraged to answer an interaction research question in an example scenario.