Driving simulation platform applied to develop driving assistance systems

This study presents a driving simulation platform with low cost for the development of driving assistance systems (DAS). The platform uses a combination of two simulation loops: hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) and driver-in-the-loop (DIL). Its hardware consists of a simulation computer, a monitor computer, a vision computer, DAS actuators and a car mock-up. Its main software includes a monitor software running in the monitor computer, a vision rendering software running in the vision computer and Matlab/Simulink-based simulation model running in simulation computer. When designing its monitor software, a graphical user interface driven-by S-function method is adopted to eliminate the delay in the displaying of the simulation data. The vision rendering software uses a parametric adjustment method based on the principle of optical projection, improving the driver’s perception of being immersed in the virtual traffic scene. The application of the developed platform is demonstrated by HIL experiments of vehicle actuators and DIL experiments of adaptive cruise control (ACC) algorithm. These experiments not only demonstrate the potential merit of the platform of speeding up DAS development, but also illustrate that the proposed control algorithms for actuators possess good tracking capability, as well as that the developed ACC algorithm is capable of improving driver comfort and reducing driver workload.