Development of the PNU vehicle driving simulator and its performance evaluation

A vehicle driving simulator is a virtual reality device in which a human being is able to feel as if they are actually driving a vehicle. The driving simulator consists of a motion platform, a driving operating system, a motion controller, a visual and audio system, a vehicle dynamic analysis system, etc. In this paper, the main procedures in the development of a driving simulator are classified as follows: 1) a motion platform and a motion controller, which can track a reference trajectory, were developed; 2) a new washout algorithm to realize the motion of an actual vehicle in the driving simulator was developed, and this algorithm enables one to change the real motion space of a vehicle into the workspace of the driving simulator; and 3) a visual and audio system for a more realistic feeling were developed. Finally, an integration system to communicate and monitor among the subsystems was developed. The performance evaluation of the developed Pusan National University vehicle driving simulator (PUNVDS) was carried out.