A framework for simulation of surrounding vehicles in driving simulators

Abstract

This article describes a framework for generation and simulation of surrounding vehicles in a driving simulator. The proposed framework generates a traffic stream, corresponding to a given target flow and simulates realistic interactions between vehicles. The framework is based on an approach in which only a limited area around the driving simulator vehicle is simulated. This closest neighborhood is divided into one inner area and two outer areas. Vehicles in the inner area are simulated according to a microscopic simulation model including advanced submodels for driving behavior while vehicles in the outer areas are updated according to a less time-consuming mesoscopic simulation model. The presented work includes a new framework for generating and simulating vehicles within a moving area. It also includes the development of an enhanced model for overtakings and a simple mesoscopic traffic model. The framework has been validated on the number of vehicles that catch up with the driving simulator vehicle and vice versa. The agreement is good for active and passive catch-ups on rural roads and for passive catch-ups on freeways, but less good for active catch-ups on freeways. The reason for this seems to be deficiencies in the utilized lane-changing model. It has been verified that the framework is able to achieve the target flow and that * Swedish National Road there is a gain in computational time of using the outer areas. The framework has also been tested within the VTI Driving simulator III.

An algorithm for combining autonomous vehicles and controlled events in driving simulator experiments

“…This was important in order for the test leader to have the subject focus on the research related questions that were separate from the experience of driving a simulator vehicle, in our case, the surrounding traffic. Secondly, the questions in the post-questionnaire have been used in previous studies in the same simulator, hence allowing us to confirm that the driving experience in the present study did not deviate in a significant way from other simulator studies performed (Janson Olstam, 2005;Janson Olstam et al, 2008). If it was concluded that the drive was normal regarding the simulator experience, we could leave that aspect of the study and focus on the research questions at hand.…”

“…where v DS is the current speed of the driving simulator,v des DS is the estimated desired speed of the simulator driver (estimated according to the procedure described in Janson Olstam et al (2008)). The parameter α is a weighting factor based on the distance to the second trigger point calculated as…”

“…The algorithm developed has been implemented in the traffic simulation framework for surrounding vehicles in driving simulators presented in Janson Olstam et al (2008). However, the car-following and lane changing models used in Janson Olstam et al (2008) have been replaced by versions of the HDM/IDM car-following model (Treiber et al, 2000(Treiber et al, , 2006 and a combination of the ARCHISIM (El Hadouaj and Espié, 2002) and the MOBIL (Kesting et al, 2007) lane-changing models.…”

“…However, the car-following and lane changing models used in Janson Olstam et al (2008) have been replaced by versions of the HDM/IDM car-following model (Treiber et al, 2000(Treiber et al, , 2006 and a combination of the ARCHISIM (El Hadouaj and Espié, 2002) and the MOBIL (Kesting et al, 2007) lane-changing models. The lateral position update algorithm has been replaced by the steering model presented in Salvucci et al (2001).…”

“…Earlier work within the field of simulating surrounding vehicles in driving simulators has focused on the development of models for simulation of autonomous vehicles; see for example Al-Shihabi and Mourant (2002), Cremer et al (1995), Espié (1995), Janson Olstam et al (2008) or Wright et al (2002). Ideas and frameworks, but no complete algorithms, for combining autonomous and controlled vehicles are provided by Alloyer et al (1997), Wassink et al (2005Wassink et al ( , 2006 and Janson Olstam and Espié (2007).…”