Driving simulator study of the relationship between motion strategy preference and self-reported driving behavior

Faithful motion restitution in driving simulators normally focuses on track monitoring and maximizing the platform workspace by leaving aside the principal component—the driver. Therefore, in this work we investigated the role of the motion perception model on motion cueing algorithms from a user’s viewpoint. We focused on the driving behavior influence regarding motion perception in a driving simulator. Participants drove a driving simulator with two different configurations: (a) using the platform dynamic model and (b) using a supplementary motion perception model. Both strategies were compared and the participants’ data were classified according to the strategy they preferred. To this end, we developed a driving behavior questionnaire aiming at evaluating the self-reported driving behavior influence on participants’ motion cueing preferences. The results showed significant differences between the participants who chose different strategies and the scored driving behavior in the hostile and violations factors. In order to support these findings, we compared participants’ behaviors and actual motion driving simulator indicators such as speed, jerk, and lateral position. The analysis revealed that motion preferences arise from different reasons linked to the realism or smoothness in motion. Also, strong positive correlations were found between hostile and violation behaviors of the group who preferred the strategy with the supplementary motion perception model, and objective measures such as jerk and speed on different road segments. This indicates that motion perception in driving simulators may depend not only on the type of motion cueing strategy, but may also be influenced by users’ self-reported driving behaviors.

Download Full-text

The Role of a Novel Discrete-Time MRAC Based Motion Cueing on Loss of Control at a Hexapod Driving Simulator

Intelligent Control and Automation ◽

10.4236/ica.2015.61010 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 06 (01) ◽

pp. 84-102 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

B. Aykent ◽

D. Paillot ◽

F. Merienne ◽

C. Guillet ◽

A. Kemeny

Keyword(s):

Discrete Time ◽

Driving Simulator ◽

Loss Of Control ◽

Motion Cueing

Download Full-text

Looking at Mind Wandering During Driving Through the Windows of PCA and t-SNE

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting ◽

10.1177/1541931218621424 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 62 (1) ◽

pp. 1863-1867 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Areen Alsaid ◽

John D. Lee ◽

Daniel M. Roberts ◽

Daniela Barrigan ◽

Carryl L. Baldwin

Keyword(s):

Performance Measures ◽

Principal Component ◽

Mind Wandering ◽

Lateral Position ◽

Driving Behavior ◽

Driving Safety ◽

Steering Wheel ◽

Attentional State ◽

Reduction Techniques ◽

Dimensionality Reduction Techniques

Mind wandering is a poorly understood phenomenon that can undermine driving safety. Driving performance measures have been found to be associated with mind wandering (e.g., steering wheel movements, standard deviation of lateral position, and speed variation). However, no one measure can fully describe the driver behavior associated with mind wandering. Therefore, in this paper we explore the effect of mind wandering on nine steering measures with data collected from a study that included nine drivers over two sessions of driving over five days. Participants were periodically probed to report their attentional state–whether they were mind wandering or focusing on the task. We used two dimensionality-reduction techniques—Principal component analysis (PCA) and t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE)—to visualize the dimensions underlying the nine measures. Comparing PCA to t-SNE highlights the benefits of t-SNE in revealing the fine structure that differentiates driving behavior. These visualizations show that a) driver engagement increased during roadway curve segments, and b) mind wandering manifests itself through several types of steering behavior.

Download Full-text

Research on the Validation Method of Advanced Driving Simulators Based on the Speed Perception Model

Applied Mechanics and Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.713-715.1890 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 713-715 ◽

pp. 1890-1893

Author(s):

Li Wei Zhu ◽

Yue Sun ◽

Zhi Yong Zhang

Keyword(s):

Traffic Safety ◽

Evaluation Model ◽

Driving Behavior ◽

The Self ◽

Driving Simulators ◽

Validation Method ◽

Validity Assessment ◽

Research Findings ◽

Perception Model ◽

Speed Perception

For the traffic safety or driving behavior research based on Advanced Driving Simulators (ADS), the validation of ADS which evaluates the effectiveness of ADS is the premise. In this paper, the validation method for ADS on the basis of the self-speed perception model is provided based on the related research findings and the speed sensitivity is determined as the main parameters of ADS validation evaluation model, which provides the effective support for the subjective validity assessment of ADS.

Download Full-text

The Validity of Three New Driving Simulator Scenarios: Detecting Differences in Driving Performance by Difficulty and Driver Gender and Age

Human Factors The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society ◽

10.1177/0018720820937520 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 001872082093752

Author(s):

Hillary Maxwell ◽

Bruce Weaver ◽

Sylvain Gagnon ◽

Shawn Marshall ◽

Michel Bédard

Keyword(s):

Discriminant Validity ◽

Driving Simulator ◽

Age Groups ◽

Driving Behavior ◽

Driving Simulation ◽

Driving Simulators ◽

Safe Driving ◽

Convergent And Discriminant Validity ◽

Gender And Age ◽

Driver Assessment

Objective We explored the convergent and discriminant validity of three driving simulation scenarios by comparing behaviors across gender and age groups, considering what we know about on-road driving. Background Driving simulators offer a number of benefits, yet their use in real-world driver assessment is rare. More evidence is needed to support their use. Method A total of 104 participants completed a series of increasingly difficult driving simulation scenarios. Linear mixed models were estimated to determine if behaviors changed with increasing difficulty and whether outcomes varied by age and gender, thereby demonstrating convergent and discriminant validity, respectively. Results Drivers adapted velocity, steering, acceleration, and gap acceptance according to difficulty, and the degree of adaptation differed by gender and age for some outcomes. For example, in a construction zone scenario, drivers reduced their mean velocities as congestion increased; males drove an average of 2.30 km/hr faster than females, and older participants drove more slowly than young (5.26 km/hr) and middle-aged drivers (6.59 km/hr). There was also an interaction between age and difficulty; older drivers did not reduce their velocities with increased difficulty. Conclusion This study provides further support for the ability of driving simulators to elicit behaviors similar to those seen in on-road driving and to differentiate between groups, suggesting that simulators could serve a supportive role in fitness-to-drive evaluations. Application Simulators have the potential to support driver assessment. However, this depends on the development of valid scenarios to benchmark safe driving behavior, and thereby identify deviations from safe driving behavior. The information gained through simulation may supplement other forms of assessment and possibly eliminate the need for on-road testing in some situations.

Download Full-text

Influence of Landscape Design on Driving Behavior Based on Slope Illusion

Journal of Advanced Transportation ◽

10.1155/2022/6407145 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 2022 ◽

pp. 1-7

Author(s):

Hao Li ◽

Yueyang Zhang

Keyword(s):

Simulation Experiment ◽

Driving Simulator ◽

Lateral Position ◽

Driving Behavior ◽

Driving Safety ◽

Plant Spacing ◽

Negative Consequences ◽

Driving Behaviors ◽

Speed Perception ◽

Driving Stability

In a continuous downhill section of a mountain highway, factors such as road alignment, roadside environment, and other visual characteristics will impact the slope illusion drivers experience and engage in unsafe driving behaviors. To improve the negative consequences of slope illusion and driving safety in continuous downhill sections, the effects of plant spacing, height, roadside distance, and color on driving behavior were all studied by simulating the plant landscape in a virtual environment. A driving simulator and UC-win/road software were used to conduct an indoor driving simulation experiment, and parameters such as speed and lateral position offset were used as the evaluation indices of driving stability to reflect the driver’s speed perception ability with subjective equivalent speeds. The results show that a plant landscape with appropriate plant spacing, height, roadside separation, and color is conducive to improving driving stability. Furthermore, a landscape with a height of 3 m, spacing of 10 m, roadside spacing of 0.75 m, and appropriate color matching can enhance the slope perception ability and speed perception ability of drivers, which is conducive to improving the driving safety of continuous downhill sections.

Download Full-text

Validation of Vehicle Driving Simulator from Perspective of Velocity and Trajectory Based Driving Behavior under Curve Conditions

Energies ◽

10.3390/en14248429 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (24) ◽

pp. 8429

Author(s):

Liang Chen ◽

Jiming Xie ◽

Simin Wu ◽

Fengxiang Guo ◽

Zheng Chen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Driving Simulator ◽

Short Term Memory ◽

Road Traffic ◽

Lateral Displacement ◽

Safety Evaluation ◽

Driving Behavior ◽

Steering Wheel ◽

Vehicle Speed ◽

Driving Simulators ◽

Convenient Setting

With their advantages of high experimental safety, convenient setting of scenes, and easy extraction of control parameters, driving simulators play an increasingly important role in scientific research, such as in road traffic environment safety evaluation and driving behavior characteristics research. Meanwhile, the demand for the validation of driving simulators is increasing as its applications are promoted. In order to validate a driving simulator in a complex environment, curve road conditions with different radii are considered as experimental evaluation scenarios. To attain this, this paper analyzes the reliability and accuracy of the experimental vehicle speed of a driving simulator. Then, qualitative and quantitative analysis of the lateral deviation of the vehicle trajectory is carried out, applying the cosine similarity method. Furthermore, a data-driven method was adopted which takes the longitudinal displacement, lateral displacement, vehicle speed and steering wheel angle of the vehicle as inputs and the lateral offset as the output. Thus, a curve trajectory planning model, a more comprehensive and human-like operation, is established. Based on directional long short-term memory (Bi–LSTM) and a recurrent neural network (RNN), a multiple Bi–LSTM (Mul–Bi–LSTM) is proposed. The prediction performance of LSTM, MLP model and Mul–Bi–LSTM are compared in detail on the validation set and testing set. The results show that the Mul–Bi–LSTM model can generate a trajectory which is very similar to the driver’s curve driving and have a preferable generalization performance. Therefore, this method can solve problems which cannot be realized in real complex scenes in the simulator validation. Selecting the trajectory as the validation parameter can more comprehensively and intuitively reflect the simulator’s curve driving state. Using a speed model and trajectory model instead of a real car experiment can improve the efficiency of simulator validation and lay a foundation for the standardization of simulator validation.

Download Full-text

Effectiveness of Warning Piles on Driving Behavior on the Curve of Low-Grade Highway

Transportation Research Record Journal of the Transportation Research Board ◽

10.1177/0361198121996358 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 036119812199635

Author(s):

Yibing Liu ◽

Xiaohua Zhao ◽

Jia Li ◽

Yang Bian ◽

Jianming Ma

Keyword(s):

Theoretical Basis ◽

Driving Simulator ◽

Engineering Application ◽

Lateral Position ◽

Driving Behavior ◽

Low Grade ◽

Vehicle Speed ◽

Speed Increase ◽

Lane Position ◽

Rural Highway

To develop a scientific and practicable guideline for implementing warning piles on Chinese low-grade highways, it is necessary to study the effect of warning piles on driving performance in different road alignments and environments. Based on a driving simulator, this paper evaluates the effect of unilateral and bilateral warning piles on vehicle speed and lateral position on a two-lane rural highway curve with different road geometries. The results show a significant effect of bilateral warning piles on speed control, which becomes more obvious as the radius of the curve decreases and the superelevation increases. In sharp curves, vehicle speed increases rapidly in the second half of the curve, and bilateral warning piles could significantly control speed increase to prevent danger. Meanwhile, the effect of bilateral warning piles on keeping vehicles in a safer lane position is also statistically significant in the second half of the curve. With a decreasing radius and an increasing superelevation, the value of the maximum lateral position will increase. Bilateral warning piles could reduce the lateral position to keep the vehicle on a stable track. Moreover, bilateral warning piles could also perform better at night. This paper studies both unilateral and bilateral warning piles’ effects on driving behavior in different road geometries, thus providing a theoretical basis for the engineering application of warning piles.

Download Full-text

Distribution and Severity of Placental Lesions Caused by the Chlamydia abortus 1B Vaccine Strain in Vaccinated Ewes

Pathogens ◽

10.3390/pathogens10050543 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (5) ◽

pp. 543

Author(s):

Sergio Gastón Caspe ◽

Javier Palarea-Albaladejo ◽

Clare Underwood ◽

Morag Livingstone ◽

Sean Ranjan Wattegedera ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Disease Outbreaks ◽

Principal Component ◽

Placental Pathology ◽

Wild Type ◽

Cell Infiltrate ◽

Chlamydia Abortus ◽

Vaccine Type ◽

The Difference ◽

Enzootic Abortion Of Ewes

Chlamydia abortus infects livestock species worldwide and is the cause of enzootic abortion of ewes (EAE). In Europe, control of the disease is achieved using a live vaccine based on C. abortus 1B strain. Although the vaccine has been useful for controlling disease outbreaks, abortion events due to the vaccine have been reported. Recently, placental pathology resulting from a vaccine type strain (vt) infection has been reported and shown to be similar to that resulting from a natural wild-type (wt) infection. The aim of this study was to extend these observations by comparing the distribution and severity of the lesions, the composition of the predominating cell infiltrate, the amount of bacteria present and the role of the blood supply in infection. A novel system for grading the histological and pathological features present was developed and the resulting multi-parameter data were statistically transformed for exploration and visualisation through a tailored principal component analysis (PCA) to evaluate the difference between them. The analysis provided no evidence of meaningful differences between vt and wt strains in terms of the measured pathological parameters. The study also contributes a novel methodology for analysing the progression of infection in the placenta for other abortifacient pathogens.

Download Full-text

Comparative Analysis of Kinect-Based and Oculus-Based Gaze Region Estimation Methods in a Driving Simulator

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s21010026 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

pp. 26

Author(s):

David González-Ortega ◽

Francisco Javier Díaz-Pernas ◽

Mario Martínez-Zarzuela ◽

Míriam Antón-Rodríguez

Keyword(s):

Virtual Reality ◽

Comparative Analysis ◽

Driving Simulator ◽

Estimation Method ◽

Estimation Methods ◽

Gaze Estimation ◽

Driving Simulators ◽

Oculus Rift ◽

Gaze Patterns ◽

And Performance

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.

Download Full-text

Phenotypic Characterisation for Growth and Nut Characteristics Revealed the Extent of Genetic Diversity in Wild Macadamia Germplasm

Agriculture ◽

10.3390/agriculture11070680 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (7) ◽

pp. 680

Author(s):

Thuy T. P. Mai ◽

Craig M. Hardner ◽

Mobashwer M. Alam ◽

Robert J. Henry ◽

Bruce L. Topp

Keyword(s):

Genetic Diversity ◽

Growth Traits ◽

Principal Component ◽

Conservation Strategies ◽

Wild Germplasm ◽

Phenotypic Characterisation ◽

Wide Range ◽

Genetic And Environmental Factors ◽

Positive Correlations ◽

Wild Accessions

Macadamia is a recently domesticated Australian native nut crop, and a large proportion of its wild germplasm is unexploited. Aiming to explore the existing diversity, 247 wild accessions from four species and inter-specific hybrids were phenotyped. A wide range of variation was found in growth and nut traits. Broad-sense heritability of traits were moderate (0.43–0.64), which suggested that both genetic and environmental factors are equally important for the variability of the traits. Correlations among the growth traits were significantly positive (0.49–0.76). There were significant positive correlations among the nut traits except for kernel recovery. The association between kernel recovery and shell thickness was highly significant and negative. Principal component analysis of the traits separated representative species groups. Accessions from Macadamia integrifolia Maiden and Betche, M. tetraphylla L.A.S. Johnson, and admixtures were clustered into one group and those of M. ternifolia F. Muell were separated into another group. In both M. integrifolia and M. tetraphylla groups, variation within site was greater than across sites, which suggested that the conservation strategies should concentrate on increased sampling within sites to capture wide genetic diversity. This study provides a background on the utilisation of wild germplasm as a genetic resource to be used in breeding programs and the direction for gene pool conservation.

Download Full-text