Festschrift in honour of Professor Neville Stanton: A lone crusader in a world of driving simulators

Driver’s gaze information can be crucial in driving research because of its relation to driver attention. Particularly, the inclusion of gaze data in driving simulators broadens the scope of research studies as they can relate drivers’ gaze patterns to their features and performance. In this paper, we present two gaze region estimation modules integrated in a driving simulator. One uses the 3D Kinect device and another uses the virtual reality Oculus Rift device. The modules are able to detect the region, out of seven in which the driving scene was divided, where a driver is gazing at in every route processed frame. Four methods were implemented and compared for gaze estimation, which learn the relation between gaze displacement and head movement. Two are simpler and based on points that try to capture this relation and two are based on classifiers such as MLP and SVM. Experiments were carried out with 12 users that drove on the same scenario twice, each one with a different visualization display, first with a big screen and later with Oculus Rift. On the whole, Oculus Rift outperformed Kinect as the best hardware for gaze estimation. The Oculus-based gaze region estimation method with the highest performance achieved an accuracy of 97.94%. The information provided by the Oculus Rift module enriches the driving simulator data and makes it possible a multimodal driving performance analysis apart from the immersion and realism obtained with the virtual reality experience provided by Oculus.

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The Evaluation of Experimental Variables for Sustainable Virtual Road Safety Audits

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13115899 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (11) ◽

pp. 5899

Author(s):

Yeonsoo Jun ◽

Juneyoung Park ◽

Chunho Yeom

Keyword(s):

Road Safety ◽

Traffic Light ◽

Scenario Development ◽

Driving Simulators ◽

Traffic Condition ◽

The Road ◽

Road Pavement ◽

Net Promoter ◽

Road Safety Audits ◽

Road Marking

This paper evaluates experimental variables for virtual road safety audits (VRSAs) through practical experiments to promote sustainable road safety. VRSAs perform road safety audits using driving simulators (DSs), and all objects in the road environment cannot be experimental variables because of realistic constraints. Therefore, the study evaluates the likelihood of recommendation of VRSA experimental variables by comparing DSs experiments and field reviews to secure sustainable road safety conditions. The net promoter score results evaluated “Tunnel”, “Bridge”, “Underpass”, “Footbridge”, “Traffic island”, “Sign”, “Lane”, “Road marking”, “Traffic light”, “Median barrier”, “Road furniture”, and “Traffic condition” as recommended variables. On the contrary, the “Road pavement”, “Drainage”, “Lighting”, “Vehicle”, “Pedestrian”, “Bicycle”, “Accident”, and “Hazard event” variables were not recommended. The study can be used for decision making in VRSA scenario development as an initial effort to evaluate its experimental variables.

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Review of Studies on Older Drivers’ Behavior and Stress—Methods, Results, and Outlook

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s21103503 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (10) ◽

pp. 3503

Author(s):

Yanning Zhao ◽

Toshiyuki Yamamoto

Keyword(s):

Age Groups ◽

Older Drivers ◽

Driving Simulators ◽

Driving Experience ◽

Older Driver ◽

Vehicle Data ◽

Vehicle Systems ◽

Questionnaire Surveys ◽

Definition Of ◽

Short Time

This paper presents a review on relevant studies and reports related to older drivers’ behavior and stress. Questionnaires, simulators, and on-road/in-vehicle systems are used to collect driving data in most studies. In addition, research either directly compares older drivers and the other drivers or considers participants according to various age groups. Nevertheless, the definition of ‘older driver’ varies not only across studies but also across different government reports. Although questionnaire surveys are widely used to affordably obtain massive data in a short time, they lack objectivity. In contrast, biomedical information can increase the reliability of a driving stress assessment when collected in environments such as driving simulators and on-road experiments. Various studies determined that driving behavior and stress remain stable regardless of age, whereas others reported degradation of driving abilities and increased driving stress among older drivers. Instead of age, many researchers recommended considering other influencing factors, such as gender, living area, and driving experience. To mitigate bias in findings, this literature review suggests a hybrid method by applying surveys and collecting on-road/in-vehicle data.

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Development of Driving Simulation Scenarios Based on Building Information Modeling (BIM) for Road Safety Analysis

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13042039 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (4) ◽

pp. 2039

Author(s):

Juan F. Dols ◽

Jaime Molina ◽

F. Javier Camacho-Torregrosa ◽

David Llopis-Castelló ◽

Alfredo García

Keyword(s):

Road Safety ◽

Data Exchange ◽

Building Information Modeling ◽

Cost Savings ◽

Safety Analysis ◽

Information Modeling ◽

Driving Simulators ◽

The Road ◽

Road Design ◽

Building Information

The analysis of road safety is critical in road design. Complying to guidelines is not enough to ensure the highest safety levels, so many of them encourage designers to virtually recreate and test their roads, benefitting from the evolution of driving simulators in recent years. However, an accurate recreation of the road and its environment represents a real bottleneck in the process. A very important limitation lies in the diversity of input data, from different sources and requiring specific adaptations for every single simulator. This paper aims at showing a framework for recreating faster virtual scenarios by using an Industry Foundation Classes (IFC)-based file. This methodology was compared to two other conventional methods for developing driving scenarios. The main outcome of this study has demonstrated that with a data exchange file in IFC format, virtual scenarios can be faster designed to carry out safety audits with driving simulators. As a result, the editing, programming, and processing times were substantially reduced using the proposed IFC exchange file format through a BIM (Building Information Modeling) model. This methodology facilitates cost-savings, execution, and optimization resources in road safety analysis.

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OESDs in an on-road study of semi-automated vehicle to human driver handovers

Cognition Technology & Work ◽

10.1007/s10111-021-00682-z ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Neville A. Stanton ◽

James W. Brown ◽

Kirsten M. A. Revell ◽

Jisun Kim ◽

Joy Richardson ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Vehicle Control ◽

Future Research ◽

Strong Correlations ◽

Sequence Diagrams ◽

Driving Simulators ◽

Human Driver ◽

Handover Process ◽

Vehicle Automation ◽

The Uk ◽

Road Study

AbstractDesign of appropriate interaction and human–machine interfaces for the handover of control between vehicle automation and human driver is critical to the success of automated vehicles. Problems in this interfacing between the vehicle and driver have led, in some cases, to collisions and fatalities. In this project, Operator Event Sequence Diagrams (OESDs) were used to design the handover activities to and from vehicle automation. Previous work undertaken in driving simulators has shown that the OESDs can be used to anticipate the likely activities of drivers during the handover of vehicle control. Three such studies showed that there was a strong correlation between the activities drivers represented in OESDs and those observed from videos of drivers in the handover process, in driving simulators. For the current study, OESDs were constructed during the design of the interaction and interfaces for the handover of control to and from vehicle automation. Videos of drivers during the handover were taken on motorways in the UK and compared with the predictions from the OESDs. As before, there were strong correlations between those activities anticipated in the OESDs and those observed during the handover of vehicle control from automation to the human driver. This means that OESDs can be used with some confidence as part of the vehicle automation design process, although validity generalisation remains an important goal for future research.

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Modular Technology in the Modelling of Large Virtual Environments in Driving Simulators

2010 12th International Conference on Computer Modelling and Simulation ◽

10.1109/uksim.2010.92 ◽

2010 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Carlota Tovar ◽

Ginés Jesús Jimena ◽

José Ma Cabanellas ◽

Carlos Zoido

Keyword(s):

Virtual Environments ◽

Driving Simulators ◽

Modular Technology

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6-DOF Motion System of Amphibious Vehicle Driving Simulator Motion Parameter Design Research

Key Engineering Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/kem.460-461.704 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 460-461 ◽

pp. 704-709

Author(s):

Shu Tao Zheng ◽

Zheng Mao Ye ◽

Jun Jin ◽

Jun Wei Han

Keyword(s):

Design Research ◽

Driving Simulator ◽

Motion Parameter ◽

Driving Simulators ◽

Motion System ◽

Vehicle Acceleration ◽

Vehicle Driving Simulator ◽

Simulator Motion ◽

Result Analysis ◽

The Relationship

Vehicle driving simulators are widely employed in training and entertainment utilities because of its safe, economic and efficient. Amphibious vehicle driving simulator was used to simulate amphibious vehicle on land and in water. Because of the motion difference between aircraft and amphibious vehicle, it is necessary to design a reasonable 6-DOF motion system according to the flight simulator motion system standard and vehicle motion parameter. FFT of DSP and PSD were used to analysis the relationship between them. Finally according to the result analysis, a set of reasonable 6-DOF motion system motion parameter was given to realize the driving simulator motion cueing used to reproduce vehicle acceleration.

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