Interactive Driving Simulation

Advanced driver assistance systems are complex mechatronic systems that primarily have to collaborate with the driver. Today, such systems cannot be realised without the extensive use of Virtual Prototyping. Interactive driving simulations play a substantial role here: driving simulators enable the integrated investigation of driver, assistance system and environment in one closed control loop.

The project “Test and Training Environment for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems” (TRAFFIS) aims to give a realistic impression of driver assistance systems that are still under development; it aims to enable virtual testing along the entire value chain and, finally, to significantly reduce the overall development time. TRAFFIS will be carried out by the Heinz Nixdorf Institute, in particular Professors A. Trächtler and J. Gausemeier, in close cooperation with four industrial companies. The Paderborn University driving simulator is the central element of this project: the system applies highly dynamic lateral and longitudinal forces as well as pitching, rolling and lifting to a real vehicle mounted on a motion platform. More- over, the driver’s field of view is entirely covered by a curved projection, which completely immerses him in the virtual environment. The border between virtual and real test drives vanishes.

1. The interactive Driving simulator
2. Evaluation of driver assistance systems during a test drive in the driving simulator

In this context, the “Product Engineering” workgroup as well as the “Control Engineering and Mechatronics” workgroup develop basic technologies, interfaces and new methods for efficient model building. These are foundations for a hardwarein-the-loop approach that, in the near future, will convert the existing driving simulator into a powerful and effective Virtual Prototyping tool whose open and flexible system architecture will facilitate the integration of various vehicles and vehicle systems, and will make it possible to switch between completely different simulation scenarios. In summary, this enables developers as well as customers to analyse or learn about the system’s behaviour in the very early development phases. Besides being a strictly goal-oriented product development, this also supports the necessary customer trust in technology.