Combining Virtual Reality and Steer-by-Wire Systems to Validate Driver Assistance Concepts

Emerging driver assistance system architectures require new methods for testing and validation. For advanced driver assistance systems (ADASs) that closely blend control with the driver, it is particularly important that tests elicit natural driving behavior. We present a flexible Human&Vehicle-in-the-Loop (Hu&ViL) platform that provides multisensory feedback to the driver during ADAS testing to address this challenge. This platform, which graphically renders scenarios to the driver through a virtual reality (VR) head-mounted display (HMD) while operating a four-wheel steer-by-wire (SBW) vehicle, enables testing in nominal dynamics, low friction, and high speed configurations. We demonstrate the feasibility of our approach by running experiments with a novel ADAS in low friction and highway settings on a limited proving ground. We further connect this work to a formal method for categorizing test bench configurations and demonstrate a possible progression of tests on different configurations of our platform.