Human Factors in Vehicle Driving Simulation

Abstract

In considering operator-in-the-loop simulation much concern is rightly directed to the response of the human controller whose actions are vital with respect to performance of the overall system. Operator-in-the-loop simulation provides a cost-effective approach to understanding the performance envelope of any proposed system and is particularly relevant to the investigation of vehicles. However, the growth of full-fidelity manipulable simulation ‘worlds’ has reflexively begun to provide a new and exciting window from which to frame innovative and critical questions about how we can understand behavior itself. In the first of the present synopses, Flach argues that just such capabilities are central to a full evaluation of a control-theoretic approach to evaluating operator performance. In the second paper, Hancock argues that it is only through the use of such facilities that the design, test, and evaluation of prototype in-vehicle collision avoidance warning systems can be accomplished. As a critical component of the general IVHS effort, the safety gains potentially associated with an effective collision warning system clearly make the investment worthwhile. Hancock further argues that, exactly how such tests are to be conducted and such systems are to be designed relies heavily upon real-world application of perceptual field theories associated with ecological views of the coupling between driver perception and action.