Design and development of a spatial immersive track cycling simulator

Abstract

Virtual Reality (VR) is a technology that makes use of computer graphics, algorithms and special hardware to simulate the real world in real time. There are four main elements required to make the VR system success, namely virtual world, immersion, sensory feedback and interactivity. The virtual world created must be as real as possible, users should have a sense of immersion in the virtual world, position tracking is usually implant in the VR system for visual, sound and force feedback on the users and the virtual objects in the VR world must be interact-able with the users. VR has proven to be effective in training and widely used in many areas, for example medical surgery, dental treatment, psychology treatment for phobia, engineering design, maintenance and repair, sports and many more. By implementing VR technology in training, users are able to reduce the training cost and time. VR training is also safer to the users, which the harsh environments can be simulated despite the environment and/or human factor. On the other hand, the physical facilities and infrastructures of the track cycling are very costly. In track cycling, the game field is called velodrome and needs a large space of area. It requires a huge amount of financial budget and a number of professional manpower to maintain these facilities. Therefore, the proposed spatial immersive track cycling simulator is invented to overcome these issues. The aim of this study is to simulate the velodrome track cycling in VR environment and synchronize with the 6 degree-of-freedom motion platform. The simulator is aimed to be low cost and minimal space requirement compared to actual velodrome. Trainee who undergoes VR track cycling simulator training has to put on a head-mounted-display (HMD) to visualize the VR environment. An actual bike will be mounted on the 6-DOF motion platform, which the platform will synchronize with the VR environment to simulate the track condition for the training purposes. An encoder is placed at the bicycle wheel to feedback the moving speed and synchronize the visualize feedback to the HMD.