Driving Simulator Interfaces for Intelligent Vehicle Evaluations on Heavy Duty Vehicles

Sammanfattning: More and more autonomous driving solutions are implemented in vehicles today.These are used as a support in traffic to reduce environmental impact, congestionand accidents. For autonomous vehicles to become a reality, all systems and thedriver's reactions to these has to be tested thoroughly before the vehicles are safeenough to drive on public roads.The main objective of the project was to develop the hardware of a desktopsimulator for Heavy Duty Vehicles, more specifically long haul trucks. The sponsoris Volvo Trucks North America and the project group consists of students fromChalmers University of Technology and Pennsylvania State University. An additionalobjective was to offer the students an opportunity to experience working ina global environment.The customer needs considered of most importance was ease of use, exibility,and portability. From these needs, six possible concepts of different simulators wasgenerated. These concepts were compared against each other in a Pugh-matrix,with the help of the customer needs. The concept chosen for further developmentwas a three-screen setup with two different additions; a modified gaming steeringwheel and a rack holding the screens (estimated cost $8,100, 65 700 SEK). Thegroup at Chalmers University of Technology focused on the construction of thesteering wheel and the group at Pennsylvania State University built the rack. It ispossible to combine both additions to one working simulator.Before building the prototype, a material selection was done with emphasisplaced on sustainability and environmentally friendly materials.Since some parts of the simulator are modified and specially manufactured forthis project, instructions and drawings have been made. This, in combination withsimple symmetries and manufacturing processes, make the parts easy to recreate.The simulator have many possible areas of usage depending on the additions,for example autonomous systems or HMI evaluations. There is also a possibility toadd a Head Mounted Display to increase the driving experience, but this requiresimprovement of graphics and other things.In conclusion, the simulator hardware mainly consist of COTS-parts, with somemodified additions which are easy to recreate. Since the rack is foldable and placedon wheels, it is to a high degree portable, even though it does not fulfill the requirementof a desktop simulator.