Dynamic Characteristics of Motor Vehicles on “Drum Tester” - for a Motion System of a Driving Simulator

A newly designed driving simulator for analysis of a driver-vehicle system was developed. It is composed of the “drum tester” with a real vehicle and a visual system. The drum tester is a lateral motion simulator for invetigating stability and controllability of vehicles with great accuracy in the laboratory. A driver is able to operate the real vehicle on the drum tester because it allows the vehicle yaw and roll rotation and lateral motion within the limits of drum width. The drum tester is suited for the analysis of lane change and straight running tests because of the limited drum width. It was used for a motion system in the driving simulator. It has been proved that dynamic characteristics of the vehicle on the drum tester are well corresponding to those on the road under the same conditions not only experimentally but also theoretically.