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Ergoneers VTK (Vehicle testing kit)

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Total results: 145

Experimental evaluation of the controllability of interacting advanced driver assistance systems

Year: 2016

Authors: O Schädler,S Müller, M Gründl

A method for the experimental evaluation of the controllability of interacting advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) is presented at the beginning of this paper. Here, driving situations where particular ADAS are acting within, at or beyond their system limits or during and after system failures have been implemented into a static driving simulator. According to the recommendation of the Code of Practice (CoP) each situation has been assessed to select three critical driving situations. The second part of the paper describes two driving simulator studies to evaluate the controllability of four interacting ADAS (Automatic Emergency Brake Assist (AEB), Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC), Lane Keeping Assist (LKA) and Lane Change Decision Aid System (LCDAS)) in critical driving situations. Each study is based on a within-subjects design. In these studies, each participant was driving each of the three scenarios ('Stationary Obstacle Avoidance', 'Braking Object Vehicle' and 'Three-Lane Motorway') without and with ADAS. The recorded physical and physiological data and the subjective perceptions of the participants were analysed. One of the findings was e.g., that some drivers became confused when ACC was braking while LKA overlaid a steering torque during a system failure (3 Nm steering torque ramp) in the scenario 'Three-Lane Motorway'. It could also be shown that accidents have happened during an evasive manoeuvre where ACC has accelerated and LKA had a overlaying steering torque. Based on the results of the study, functional improvements which might enhance the interaction of ADAS have been derived and are presented in this paper. These improvements have been tested and evaluated in a second replication driver simulator study. The results of this study show an improvement of the controllability when the vehicle in front is detected earlier. It also confirms that an unexpected braking and warning of an Adaptive Cruise Control and an overlay of a steering moment lead to an uncontrollable behaviour.

Eye Tracking Glasses
Simulator

3 versions available

Keep your scanners peeled: Gaze behavior as a measure of automation trust during highly automated driving

Year: 2016

Authors: S Hergeth, L Lorenz, R Vilimek,JF Krems

Objective: The feasibility of measuring drivers’ automation trust via gaze behavior during highly automated driving was assessed with eye tracking and validated with self-reported automation trust in a driving simulator study. Background: Earlier research from other domains indicates that drivers’ automation trust might be inferred from gaze behavior, such as monitoring frequency. Method: The gaze behavior and self-reported automation trust of 35 participants attending to a visually demanding non-driving-related task (NDRT) during highly automated driving was evaluated. The relationship between dispositional, situational, and learned automation trust with gaze behavior was compared. Results: Overall, there was a consistent relationship between drivers’ automation trust and gaze behavior. Participants reporting higher automation trust tended to monitor the automation less frequently. Further analyses revealed that higher automation trust was associated with lower monitoring frequency of the automation during NDRTs, and an increase in trust over the experimental session was connected with a decrease in monitoring frequency. Conclusion: We suggest that (a) the current results indicate a negative relationship between drivers’ self-reported automation trust and monitoring frequency, (b) gaze behavior provides a more direct measure of automation trust than other behavioral measures, and (c) with further refinement, drivers’ automation trust during highly automated driving might be inferred from gaze behavior. Application: Potential applications of this research include the estimation of drivers’ automation trust and reliance during highly automated driving.

Eye Tracking Glasses
Simulator

8 versions available

NaviLight: investigating ambient light displays for turn-by-turn navigation in cars

Year: 2016

Authors: A Matviienko,A Löcken,A El Ali,W Heuten

Car navigation systems typically combine multiple output modalities; for example, GPS-based navigation aids show a real-time map, or feature spoken prompts indicating upcoming maneuvers. However, the drawback of graphical navigation displays is that drivers have to explicitly glance at them, which can distract from a situation on the road. To decrease driver distraction while driving with a navigation system, we explore the use of ambient light as a navigation aid in the car, in order to shift navigation aids to the periphery of human attention. We investigated this by conducting studies in a driving simulator, where we found that drivers spent significantly less time glancing at the ambient light navigation aid than on a GUI navigation display. Moreover, ambient light-based navigation was perceived to be easy to use and understand, and preferred over traditional GUI navigation displays. We discuss the implications of these outcomes on automotive personal navigation devices.

Simulator
Software

9 versions available

On the visual distraction effects of audio-visual route guidance

Year: 2016

Authors: T Kujala,H Grahn, J Mäkelä, A Lasch

This is the first controlled quantitative analysis on the visual distraction effects of audio-visual route guidance in simulated, but ecologically realistic driving scenarios with dynamic maneuvers and self-controlled speed (N = 24). The audio-visual route guidance system under testing passed the set verification criteria, which was based on drivers' preferred occlusion distances on the test routes. There were no significant effects of an upcoming maneuver instruction location (up, down) on the in-car display on any metric or on the experienced workload. The drivers' median occlusion distances correlated significantly with median in-car glance distances. There was no correlation between drivers' median occlusion distance and intolerance of uncertainty but significant inverse correlations between occlusion distances and age as well as driving experience were found. The findings suggest that the visual distraction effects of audio-visual route guidance are low and provide general support for the proposed testing method.

Simulator
Software

2 versions available

The expressway traffic sign information volume threshold and AGS position based on driving behaviour

Year: 2016

Authors: Z Guo, Z Wei, H Wang

Reasonable traffic signs are important for ensuring operation safety and efficiency of expressways. The overloaded information of the traffic signs and improper distance ahead of the signs present serious problems, for they may raise the driver's visual cognition burden, reduce expressway operation efficiency and cause potential safety hazards. This paper aims at developing design criteria of traffic sign information volume and reasonable AGS positions with regard to driving behavior and traffic safety. The relationship among driving behavior, traffic sign information and AGS positions has been studied based upon driving simulation tests in this paper. The information of traffic signs is processed and quantified with the method of information entropy under the framework of information theory. According to traffic flow theory and a mathematical model of vehicle lane change, AGS positions are analyzed and reasonable positions are recommended in relation to the operation conditions on multi-lane expressways. During the simulation tests, drivers aged 20-40 with 2-10 year driving experience were invited for the tests and asked to drive along the designed expressway scenes. The driver's visual behavior was monitored with an eye tracking system and data of driving behavior and the vehicle running tracks were also collected during the simulation tests. The relationship model between traffic sign information volume, AGS position and driving behavior parameters was developed as a result of further data mining, analysis and synthesis. Eventually, a multidimensional indicator of expressway sign information volume threshold has been proposed and reasonable AGS positions on multi-lane expressways are determined.

Simulator
Software

8 versions available

Adding depth: establishing 3D display fundamentals for automotive applications

Year: 2015

Authors: MJ Pitts, E Hasedžić, L Skrypchuk, A Attridge

The advent of 3D displays offers Human-Machine Interface (HMI) designers and engineers new opportunities to shape the user's experience of information within the vehicle. However, the application of 3D displays to the in-vehicle environment introduces a number of new parameters that must be carefully considered in order to optimise the user experience. In addition, there is potential for 3D displays to increase driver inattention, either through diverting the driver's attention away from the road or by increasing the time taken to assimilate information. Manufacturers must therefore take great care in establishing the ‘do’s and ‘don’t's of 3D interface design for the automotive context, providing a sound basis upon which HMI designers can innovate. This paper describes the approach and findings of a three-part investigation into the use of 3D displays in the instrument cluster of a road car, the overall aim of which was to define the boundaries of the 3D HMI design space. A total of 73 participants were engaged over three studies. Findings indicate that users can identify depth more quickly and accurately when rendered in 3D, indicating potential for future applications using the depth dimension to relay information. Image quality was found to degrade with increasing parallax and indications of a fatigue effect with continued exposure were found. Finally, a relationship between minimum 3D offset, parallax position and object type was identified.

Eye Tracking Glasses
Software

3 versions available

App analytics: predicting the distraction potential of in-vehicle device applications

Year: 2015

Authors: M Krause,AS Conti, M Henning, C Seubert

Three experiments were conducted to check the feasibility of predicting experimental outcomes of driver distraction studies. The predictions are based on subtasks analysis and synthesis. In the first experiment, data (e.g., Total Glance Time, Single Glance Durations and Total Shutter Open Times) are gathered when subjects interacted with touch screen applications. In a second experiment, additional data were gathered about rotary knob interactions. These data were used to synthesis and predict the outcomes of a third (evaluation) experiment, which involved rotary knob and touch screen tasks. The results are promising and can help to have a better understanding of problematic subtasks and reduce testing of clearly unsuitable applications. The transfer of the procedure to other laboratories is challenging. The modeling and mapping process includes many subjective decisions.

Eye Tracking Glasses
Simulator

3 versions available

Driver-activity recognition in the context of conditionally autonomous driving

Year: 2015

Authors: C Braunagel,E Kasneci, W Stolzmann

This paper presents a novel approach to automated recognition of the driver's activity, which is a crucial factor for determining the take-over readiness in conditionally autonomous driving scenarios. Therefore, an architecture based on head-and eye-tracking data is introduced in this study and several features are analyzed. The proposed approach is evaluated on data recorded during a driving simulator study with 73 subjects performing different secondary tasks while driving in an autonomous setting. The proposed architecture shows promising results towards in-vehicle driver-activity recognition. Furthermore, a significant improvement in the classification performance is demonstrated due to the consideration of novel features derived especially for the autonomous driving context.

Eye Tracking Glasses
Simulator

6 versions available

Driving with homonymous visual field defects: Driving performance and compensatory gaze movements

Year: 2015

Authors: TC Kübler,E Kasneci,W Rosenstiel

Aim of this pilot study was to assess the driving performance and its relationship to the visual search behavior, i.e., eye and head movements, of patients with homonymous visual field defects (HVFDs) in comparison to healthy-sighted subjects during a simulated driving test. Eight HVFD patients and six healthy-sighted age- and gender-matched control subjects underwent a 40-minute driving test with nine hazardous situations. Eye and head movements were recorded during the drive. Four out of eight patients passed the driving test and showed a driving performance similar to that of the control group. One control group subject failed the test. Patients who passed the test showed an increased number of head and eye movements. Patients who failed the test showed a rightwards-bias in average lane position, probably in an attempt to maximize the safety margin to oncoming traffic. Our study supports the hypothesis that a considerable subgroup of subjects with HVFDs show a safe driving behavior, because they adapt their viewing behavior by increased visual scanning.

Eye Tracking Glasses
Simulator

8 versions available

Ergonomic design of the gauge cluster display for commercial trucks

Year: 2015

Authors: T Kim, J Park, J Choe, ES Jung

Objective: The purpose of this study is to determine the priority of information presentation and the effective menu type to be placed in the center of a gauge cluster display for commercial trucks and to present a set of ergonomic designs for the gauge cluster display. Background: An effective ergonomic design is specifically needed for the development of the gauge cluster display for the commercial trucks, because more diverse and heavier information is delivered to truck drivers, compared to the information to passenger car drivers. Method: First, all the information that must be shown on the commercial truck display was collected. Then, the severity, frequency of use, and display design parameters were evaluated for those information by commercial truck drivers. Next, an analysis on the information attributes and the heuristic evaluation utilizing the display design principles were carried out. According to the results, a design alternative of the main screen to be displayed was constructed by priority. A comparative analysis between the alternative and existing main screens was also conducted to see the efficacy of the designs. Lastly, we conducted an experiment for the selection of menu type. The experiment was conducted using the driving simulator with an eye-tracking device. The independent variables were four types of the menu reflecting the commercial truck characteristics such as grid type, icon type, list type, and flow type. We measured preference, total execution time, the total duration of fixation on the gauge cluster area, and the total number of fixation on the gauge cluster area as dependent variables. Results: Four types of driver convenience information and six types of driver assistance information were selected as the information to be placed primarily on the main screen of the gauge cluster. The Grid type was the most effective among the menu types. Conclusion: In this study, the information that appears on the main screen of the display, the division of the display and the design of the menu type for commercial truck drivers were suggested. Application: This study is expected to be utilized as guidelines on the ergonomic design of a gauge cluster display for commercial trucks.

Eye Tracking Glasses
Simulator

4 versions available