High Speed Emulation in a Vehicle-in-the-Loop Driving Simulator

TL;DR

This paper introduces a VR-based Vehicle-in-the-Loop simulator capable of emulating high-speed driving conditions with multisensory feedback, enabling safe and realistic testing of driver behavior at highway speeds.

Contribution

It presents a novel high-speed emulation method combining VR visuals, vehicle dynamics, and force feedback to simulate fast driving in limited space.

Findings

Emulates highway speeds safely within limited space

Provides sensory feedback comparable to manual driving

Tracks yaw motion within human perception limits

Abstract

Rendering accurate multisensory feedback is critical to ensure natural user behavior in driving simulators. In this work, we present a virtual reality (VR)-based Vehicle-in-the-Loop (ViL) simulator that provides visual, vestibular, and haptic feedback to drivers in high speed driving conditions. Designing our simulator around a four-wheel steer-by-wire vehicle enables us to emulate the dynamics of a vehicle traveling significantly faster than the test vehicle and to transmit corresponding haptic steering feedback to the driver. By scaling the speed of the test vehicle through a combination of VR visuals, vehicle dynamics emulation, and steering wheel force feedback, we can safely and immersively run experiments up to highway speeds within a limited driving space. In double lane change and highway weaving experiments, our high speed emulation method tracks yaw motion within human perception limits and provides sensory feedback comparable to the same maneuvers driven manually.