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Rolling out a new Driving Simulator Concept – Design and Challenges of Wheeled Mobile Driving Simulators

Authors:
Torben Albrecht at Technische Universität Darmstadt
Torben Albrecht
Meike Ottensmeier at Technische Universität Dresden
Meike Ottensmeier
Xing Chen at Technische Universität Darmstadt
Xing Chen
Stefan Plaettner at Technische Universität Dresden
Stefan Plaettner
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Abstract

Wheeled mobile driving simulators (WMDS) intend to cue the motion of road vehicles by moving a tire-bound, electrically driven, omnidirectional platform. The motion space of a WMDS is a planar surface, which can theoretically be increased infinitely without having to modify the system itself. The concept therefore has high potential to represent scenarios with long-lasting, longitudinal and lateral accelerations with high immersion. For this reason, the Technical University of Darmstadt and the Technische Universität Dresden are both independently developing full-scale rototypes of a WMDS. Both are currently working on common research questions and challenges, which arise from the tire characteristics and the unboundness of the system. This paper aims to give an overview of the two simulator designs and an insight into the main research topics and solution approaches for the development of wheeled mobile driving simulators.
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Full paper available at hps://proceedings.driving-simulaon.org/proceeding/dsc-2021/rolling-out-a-
new-driving-simulator-concept-design-and-challenges-of-wheeled-mobile-driving-simulators/
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... The driving simulator consists of three motion systems: a hexapod (4) with six degrees of freedom (DOFs), mounted on a yaw joint (3) with one DOF, and a motion platform (1). The motion platform comprises four corner modules (2) with individually steerable and controllable wheels and provides three DOFs in the horizontal plane. These motion systems result in ten controllable DOFs. ...
... The driver is inside the upper dome (5), which includes a mock-up and a visualization. Figure 1 illustrates the virtual driving simulator [2]. The driving simulator's purpose is to generate accelerations, which the driver expects within the simulation. ...
... This method includes marginal velocities v kx,y (kx for longitudinal, ky for lateral slip) with a safety coefficient = 1, 1 [8,9]. Merging the general slip definitions by Schramm et al. [18] and the expansions by Jung et al. [8] and Kim et al. [9] leads to Eqs. (1) and (2). ...
Development of a Motion Control for a highly dynamic, self-propelled driving simulator
Article
Full-text available
  • Jan 2023
The new concept of the self-propelled driving simulator comprises a hexapod, a yaw joint and a wheel-based motion platform with four individually steerable wheels. This concept provides a theoretically unlimited motion range, which especially enables highly dynamic drive maneuvers. To ensure an omnidirectional motion, the motion platform has to accelerate instantly in any direction. This requirement leads to the main challenges in the control system of the simulator: taking into account the nonlinear and transient tire characteristics and generating the target accelerations as expected by the driver. According to these requirements, the Motion Control is only for controlling the horizontal dynamics of the motion platform. The Motion Control presented in this paper includes various model definitions, especially regarding the essential tire characteristics considered within an extended HSRI (Highway Safety Research Institute) tire model. The Motion Control as Two-Degrees-of-Freedom control contains a Feedforward for generating target body forces, a Control Allocation for an optimal force distribution to the wheels, a Single Wheel Control as a specific control of the tire forces, and a Compensation Control on acceleration level. Investigation of this control by simulation, using a simplified reference model, already revealed a high controller performance regarding accuracy and quality. The optimal force distribution leads to an equal adhesion utilization and the Compensation Control compensates the remaining Single Wheel Control deviations. Difficulties only occur for the steering angle in the case of low velocity up to a standstill. Due to the exact input–output linearization, the Single Wheel Control leads to a singularity and instability. Therefore, the steering angle requires exceptional control in this case.
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... On the one hand, the design of a WBDS offers many advantages, allowing a new dimension of immersion, but on the other hand, it poses three main challenges to the development. All three challenges in this regard are based on the fact that the system is wheel-based and thereby unbound [1]. ...
... Latency due to relaxation length depending on velocity and wheel load[1] ...
Highly immersive driving simulator for scenario based testing of automated driving functions
Chapter
  • Mar 2022
Validation of automated driving functions (SAE level 2 to level 4) has to be done scenario-based in the future. Simulation and test based methods need newly designed tools, particularly driving simulators. Today’s driving simulators based on parallel and hexapod kinematics do not provide enough motion space for many test scenarios. A wheel based driving simulator combines the advantage of a large working space with high motion dynamics. This allows to reduce false cues below the human perception thresholds in all spatial directions. With this tool the design of human-machine-interfaces can be done methodically and systematically. Requirements for homologation and technical inspection can be derived. Research on human behavioral models can be pursued (e. g. [5, 6, 7]). Finally, new opportunities arise in terms of attribute objectification in handling, ride comfort, and driveability.
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... driving control elements like steering wheel and pedals as well as the visualization of the virtual environment, whereas other components are optional, e.g. a moving platform or a full vehicle mockup. One of the latest simulator concepts, presented at the Driving Simulator Conference 2021 (Albrecht et al., 2021), is the Wheeled Mobile Driving Simulator (WMDS), whose tire-based moving platform allows a theoretically unlimited range of motion. (Tüschen, 2018) This unique feature has to be customized, depending on which systems are used to replicate the other stimuli that are relevant for the high immersion of a driving situation. ...
Impact of the visualization system choice on Wheeled Mobile Driving Simulator concepts
Conference Paper
Full-text available
  • Sep 2022
Due to their different conceptual approaches in reproducing the interaction of a real driver with the vehicle and its environment, driving simulators have various chains of effects and dependencies between their system components. In the special case of a Wheeled Mobile Driving Simulator (WMDS), which is currently being implemented by the Technische Universität Dresden and the Technical University of Darmstadt, the overall mass as well as the geometric dimensions have a decisive influence on the representation quality of the tire-bound, electrically driven, omnidirectional motion system. Taking into account different objectives in the current development project as well as in future application projects, the two research groups relied on a different visualization system. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to show what effects the decision for a projection system or a head-mounted display (HMD) can have on the further component design of the simulator.
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Objective Evaluation Methods of Vehicle Ride Comfort - A Literature Review
Article
Full-text available
  • Dec 2022
  • J SOUND VIB
Since vehicle ride comfort represents an important criterion for the customer and the vehicle development process consumes a great deal of time and cost, increased efficiency and virtualization of the ride comfort design is strictly required. To this end, ride comfort tuning and assessment, largely being performed in a subjective manner on the test track nowadays, should successively be shifted to an objective, virtual evaluation. The goal of this study is to provide specific information from the vast body of literature regarding the subsequent steps of the correlative approach often employed to deliver an objective measure equivalent to a subjective rating. The reviewed literature demonstrates that specially adapted causal relationships are frequently created, but they potentially lack the state of generalisation required to objectively tune future generations of vehicles with sufficient accuracy. Before establishing a suitable mathematical formula, it is essential to define each ride comfort aspect in detail and with a common understanding, since they constitute the foundation for a successful objective description. Paired with the knowledge of the complexity of human discomfort perception, which constitutes another point of this review, the necessary vehicle tests can be planned appropriately. Finally, various ride comfort phenomenon-specific approaches employed in the reviewed literature are presented in order to provide the developer with a useful toolbox to objectively describe the desired ride comfort aspect.
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