A Novel Instrumental System for Immersive Simulation-Based Driver-in-the-Loop Vehicular Technology Research and Validation

The advancement in immersive technologies has opened up new frontiers to automotive engineering. Markedly, emerging tools such as vehicle/driving simulators, hardware-in-the-loop systems, digital twins, and biosensing devices enable researchers to explore and validate various kinds of human-centric vehicular automation technologies in a safe, time-efficient, and reverifiable manner. In this paper, a novel driver-in-the-Ioop instrumental system for automated vehicle research and validation is delineated. Such a setup synergizes a cutting-edge six-degrees-of-freedom moving-base vehicle simulator with an immersive video-audio system, an advanced dSP ACE SCALEXIO real-time hardware-in-the-Ioop simulation computer that runs high-fidelity and customizable digital twins of vehicle systems, sensors, roadway, and traffic, a dSP ACE MicroAutoBox, as well as a biosensor suite comprising electroencephalography instrument for brain activities monitoring, electromyography apparatus for forearm muscle responses measurements, and an eye-tracking device for gaze and head movements tracking. The capabilities and versatility of the novel instrumental setup are showcased by demonstrating its utilization in a research project.