The Carnegie Mellon Truck Simulator, A Tool to Improve Driving Safety

Carnegie Mellon Driving Research Center, together with ISIM, is presently involved in the design and development of an Advanced Human Factors Research and Driving Training Research Facility. The facility has been designed to address human factors issues and driver training issues. Human factors interests include developing countermeasures for fatigue and driver/vehicle interface issues. Driver training issues include validating the usefulness of simulators for driver training, developing effective curricula and investigating simulator fidelity needed for effective training. A key component of the facility is the Carnegie Mellon TruckSim that will be capable of simulating a variety of commercial and emergency vehicles using interchangeable cabs mounted to a common motion platform. TruckSim's modular configuration will allow for rapid and cost effective design of experiments and training scenarios. A first research program to evaluate fatigue countermeasures is presented as an example.