Design of Hardware/Algorithms for Enhancement of Driver-Vehicle Performance in Inclement Conditions Using a Virtual Environment

The paper considers the development of tools for studying and enhancing the ability of a driver to cope with inclement conditions. The goal is to develop strategies for supplementing a driver’s natural cues with synthetic cues derived from sensors and control strategies. To provide a system for the evaluation of driver assistive technology for inclement conditions, a driving simulator has been developed. The architecture of the driving simulator includes a driving console, a Pentium PC, and an ONYX with Infinite Reality 2 engine. The PC is dedicated to data acquisition and logging of driver input from a driving console which includes a steering wheel and brake and throttle pedals in addition to communicating the driver input to the ONYX2 via the Internet. The vehicle dynamics and the visualization software reside on the ONYX2 to permit real-time simulation of the dynamics and visualization of the environment.