Enhanced Immersive Reality through Cable-driven Simulators

When operated by professional drivers, driving simulators are proven development tools. However, studies on automated vehicles and human-machine interfaces require test series with different subjects to generate a sufficiently large number of samples. It is not possible to rely exclusively on professional test drivers, but the use of amateur test drivers is often not possible either, as they often show kinetosis symptoms due to the latency of the test rig. Engineers and psychologists at the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University of Milan have investigated the extent to which the Politecnico di Milano test rig is suitable for trials with amateur test drivers. Driving simulators have been used for road vehicle development since 1934 [1]. Assessing how realistic the simulator is, however, has been difficult [1, 2], as kinetosis (motion sickness) due to the latency of the test bench often prevents amateur drivers (individuals who are not accustomed to the responses of the simulator) from operating driving simulators [1]. At the Politecnico di Milano, engineers and psychologists from San Raffaele University of Milan evaluated the immersive sense of reality provided by VI-grade's cable-driven simulator technology [3]. Both subjective and objective assessments were performed.