Using a Virtual Reality-Based Night Drive Simulator as a Tool for the Virtual Prototyping of an Advanced Leveling Light System

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Berssenbru¨gge ◽  
Sven Kreft ◽  
Ju¨rgen Gausemeier
Keyword(s):  
Vehicle Dynamics ◽  
Control Algorithm ◽  
Control Parameter ◽  
Driving Simulator ◽  
Virtual Prototyping ◽  
The Road ◽  
Virtual Test ◽  
Light System ◽  
Parameter Values ◽  
Real Test

Modern automobiles contain various mechatronical components to support the task of driving. To enhance driver vision and driving safety at night time, advanced lighting systems, such as a predictive advanced front lighting system (PAFS) enhance automotive lighting by swiveling the headlights horizontally into approaching curves on a winding road. In addition to this, basic leveling light systems tilt the headlights vertically, in order to adjust to the vehicle chassis pitch due to the vehicle load or suspension effects based on the vehicle dynamics from driving on a rough road. More advanced leveling systems even account for the vertical course of an undulating road using GPS-data to locate the vehicle’s position plus digital map data to predict the vertical course of the road in front of the vehicle. That way, the headlights follow the road curvature and illuminate the road ahead of the vehicle without glaring oncoming traffic. In order to design, evaluate, and optimize the control algorithm within the electronic control unit (ECU) of the leveling light system, various control parameter values need to be adjusted and fine-tuned to ensure an optimal response of the system to the current road scenario. For this task, numerous time-consuming and costly test drives at night are necessary. This paper proposes to use a Virtual Reality-based night driving simulator as tool to simulate and evaluate an advanced leveling light system. The PC-based night drive simulator visualizes the complex beam patterns of automotive headlights in high detail and in real-time. The user drives a simulated vehicle over a virtual test track at night, while the vehicle motion directly affects the lighting direction of headlights. Thus, the effect of the vehicle dynamics on the lighting can be evaluated directly in the simulator. The system is connected to the control algorithm of the advanced leveling light system, which controls the headlights tilting angle. This provides a close-to-reality simulation of the advanced leveling light system during a simulated drive at night. That way, within the virtual prototyping process of the advanced leveling light system, good combinations of control parameter values can be indentified, based on virtual test drives in the night driving simulator, and the number of real test drives can be reduced significantly. Promising combinations of the control parameter values then can be validated during a real test drive a night.

Virtual Prototyping of an Advanced Leveling Light System Using a Virtual Reality-Based Night Drive Simulator

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Berssenbrügge ◽  
Sven Kreft ◽  
Jürgen Gausemeier
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Driving Simulator ◽  
Virtual Prototyping ◽  
Virtual Test ◽  
Light System ◽  
Tilting Angle ◽  
Vehicle Motion ◽  
Parameter Values ◽  
Beam Patterns ◽  
Real Test

This paper proposes to use a virtual reality-based night driving simulator as a tool to evaluate an advanced leveling light system. The night driving simulator visualizes the complex beam patterns of automotive headlights in high detail, while the vehicle motion directly affects the lighting direction of the headlights. The system is connected to the control algorithm of an advanced leveling light system, which controls the headlight tilting angle. Within the virtual prototyping process of the lighting system, good combinations of control parameter values can be identified, based on virtual test drives, and the number of real test drives can be reduced significantly.

Visualization of Headlight Illumination for the Virtual Prototyping of Light-Based Driver–Assistance Systems

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Berssenbrügge ◽  
Ansgar Trächtler ◽  
Christoph Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
Driving Simulator ◽  
Virtual Prototyping ◽  
Driver Assistance ◽  
Driver Assistance Systems ◽  
Driving Simulators ◽  
Visualization System ◽  
The Road ◽  
Assistance Systems ◽  
Lighting Systems ◽  
Project Partner

Driving simulators that are capable of simulating a virtual drive at night are increasingly used for the virtual prototyping of light-based driver–assistance systems (DAS). Here, the interplay between driver and assistance system, which enhances the illumination of the road ahead of the vehicle, is investigated. For such investigations, special driving simulators are applied that not only enable a standard driving simulation but also cover the special requirements for the visualization of a driving scenery at night, the simulation of automotive headlights during a virtual drive at night, and the interface to a headlight control module (HCM) that operates the physical headlight prototypes. In this paper, we present the visualization system of the reconfigurable driving simulator from the research project TRAFFIS. We describe the special application focus on the virtual prototyping of a light-based DAS from our project partner Varroc Lighting Systems. The light-based DAS is based on a headlight prototype that combines a glare-free high-beam (GFHB) function and a predictive adaptive frontlighting system (PAFS) for glare-free driving with maximized headlight time.

Procedural Generation of Vegetation for a Virtual Test Track

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Berssenbrügge ◽  
Jörg Stöcklein ◽  
Andre Koza ◽  
Iris Gräßler
Keyword(s):  
Driving Simulator ◽  
Aerial Images ◽  
Test Track ◽  
Perceived Realism ◽  
Virtual Test ◽  
Landscape Models ◽  
Color Detection ◽  
Rule System ◽  
Digital Landscape ◽  
Real Test

Advanced driver assistant systems (ADAS) are increasingly being tested during simulated test drives in a test and training environment based on a driving simulator, in order to reduce the number of extensive real test drives. The need for numerous virtual test drives in the driving simulator requires to model detailed and realistically appearing 3D models of real test tracks. A manual reproduction of real tracks is a cumbersome and time-intensive task. In previous work, we have introduced a method to create virtual test tracks with minimized manual effort using data from various sources, such as navigation systems, digital elevation models, aerial images, digital landscape models etc. [1]. However, these virtual test tracks still do not appear very realistic to the test driver, since no detailed vegetation was generated by that method. In this paper, we propose an approach to enrich a virtual terrain with authentic vegetation. The aim is to increase the perceived realism of the landscape, in order to provide the same input for the sensors of an ADAS under test in the driving simulator as on the real track. The requirement is to automate the vegetation generation as far as possible and to support real-time rendering of the generated very complex 3D model, which is crucial for a usable sensor feed. The basis for the generation of vegetation in this work is data from digital landscape models. These data define where areas like woodlands and agricultural zones are located in geographic coordinates. These areas are refined by a color detection, which is applied to the corresponding aerial images, in order to identify various tree and plant species. Based on the application of a procedural rule system the actual plants are then placed in the refined areas. The rule system imitates the natural growth behavior of plants and is based on terrain characteristics like gradient, direction of a slope, or competition for resources. By combining terrain data, color detection on aerial images, and procedural rules, a planting method is developed to generate natural looking vegetation. The implementation prototype of our approach, based on the Unity3D game engine, which supports an easy creation of complex sceneries, showed that it is possible to create vegetation for a virtual test track with minimal manual effort. By placing vegetation at realistic locations, considering natural spread of plants, the perceived realism of the scene was improved. A performance analysis showed that even with the generated vegetation, interactive frame rates are achievable.

Research on Fidelity of Driving Simulators

2011 ◽  
Vol 308-310 ◽  
pp. 1880-1884 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pei Xin Li ◽  
Yan Ding Wei ◽  
Xiao Jun Zhou ◽  
Chun Yu Wei ◽  
Ming Xiang Xie ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Control Algorithm ◽  
Driving Simulator ◽  
Steering Wheel ◽  
Dynamics Modeling ◽  
Driving Simulators ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
The Road ◽  
Body Dynamics ◽  
Wheel Torque ◽  
Multi Body

Through analyzing the specialty and limitation of the current driving simulators, the main factors affecting fidelity of driving simulators are summarized. Then, a new driving simulator of high fidelity based on the multi-body dynamics is proposed, with focus on the dynamics modeling and the road feel. Furthermore, a control algorithm of the road feel is designed and by the means of co-simulations in MATLAB/Simulink and ADAMS environment, the measuring steering wheel torque proves the control algorithm of road feel is reasonable. The control algorithm has been put into practice and got satisfactory results.

Visualization of Headlight Illumination for the Virtual Prototyping of Light-Based Driver Assistance Systems

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Berssenbrügge ◽  
Ansgar Trächtler ◽  
Christoph Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
Driving Simulator ◽  
Virtual Prototyping ◽  
Assistance System ◽  
Driver Assistance ◽  
Driver Assistance Systems ◽  
Driving Simulators ◽  
Visualization System ◽  
The Road ◽  
Assistance Systems ◽  
Lighting Systems

Driving simulators that are capable of a simulation of a virtual drive at night are increasingly used for the virtual prototyping of light-based driver assistance systems. Here, the interplay between driver and assistance system, which enhances the illumination of the road ahead of the vehicle, is investigated. For such investigations, special driving simulators are applied that enable not only a standard driving simulation but also cover the special requirements for the visualization of a driving scenery at night, the simulation of automotive headlights during a virtual drive at night, and the interface to a headlight control module (HCM) that operates the physical headlight prototypes. In this paper, we present the visualization system of the reconfigurable driving simulator from the research project TRAFFIS. We describe the special application focus on the virtual prototyping of a light-based driver assistance system from our project partner Varroc Lighting Systems. The light-based DAS bases on a headlight prototype that combines a glare-free high beam (GFHB) function and a predictive adaptive frontlighting system (PAFS) for glare-free driving with maximized headlight time.

Actuation Strategy for a New Driving Simulator Setup

2010 ◽  
Vol 166-167 ◽  
pp. 109-114
Author(s):  
Alina Capustiac ◽  
Michael Unterreiner ◽  
Dieter Schramm
Keyword(s):  
Vehicle Dynamics ◽  
Driving Simulator ◽  
Driving Experience ◽  
The Road ◽  
Road Excitation ◽  
Road Characteristics

This paper focuses on the actuation strategy of an active driving simulator and its validation using experimental driving data. The simulator combines the simulation of both the road characteristics and the vehicle dynamics into a single architecture. The goal is to combine actual road excitation signals with imposed vehicle movements to create a realistic driving experience.

scholarly journals Striated Tire Yaw Marks—Modeling and Validation

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (14) ◽  
pp. 4309
Author(s):  
Wojciech Wach ◽  
Jakub Zębala
Keyword(s):  
Vehicle Dynamics ◽  
Linear Equations ◽  
Tire Model ◽  
Vehicle Accidents ◽  
The Road ◽  
Variable Curvature ◽  
Macro Scale ◽  
On The Road ◽  
Multi Body ◽  
Non Linear Equations

Tire yaw marks deposited on the road surface carry a lot of information of paramount importance for the analysis of vehicle accidents. They can be used: (a) in a macro-scale for establishing the vehicle’s positions and orientation as well as an estimation of the vehicle’s speed at the start of yawing; (b) in a micro-scale for inferring among others things the braking or acceleration status of the wheels from the topology of the striations forming the mark. A mathematical model of how the striations will appear has been developed. The model is universal, i.e., it applies to a tire moving along any trajectory with variable curvature, and it takes into account the forces and torques which are calculated by solving a system of non-linear equations of vehicle dynamics. It was validated in the program developed by the author, in which the vehicle is represented by a 36 degree of freedom multi-body system with the TMeasy tire model. The mark-creating model shows good compliance with experimental data. It gives a deep view of the nature of striated yaw marks’ formation and can be applied in any program for the simulation of vehicle dynamics with any level of simplification.

On the Road Profile Estimation from Vehicle Dynamics Measurements

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angelo Domenico Vella ◽  
Antonio Tota ◽  
Alessandro Vigliani
Keyword(s):  
Vehicle Dynamics ◽  
The Road ◽  
Road Profile ◽  
On The Road ◽  
Profile Estimation

Could Chalk Hopping Be Caused by Reverse Chatter?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
John W. Sanders
Keyword(s):  
Control Algorithm ◽  
Human Hand ◽  
Related Phenomenon ◽  
Painlevé Paradox ◽  
Loss Of Contact ◽  
Subsequent Motion ◽  
Parameter Values ◽  
External Loads ◽  
Physical Manifestation ◽  
Two Bodies

Anyone who has ever used a chalkboard is probably familiar with the phenomenon of “chalk hopping,” where the chalk unexpectedly skips across the chalkboard, leaving a dotted line in its wake. Such behavior is ubiquitous to mechanical systems with moving parts in contact, where it is almost always undesirable. It is widely believed that hopping behavior is a physical manifestation of either the classical Painlevé paradox or a related phenomenon called dynamical jam. The present paper poses the question of whether chalk hopping might be caused by a different, and much more recently discovered, instability called “reverse chatter,” in which two bodies initially in sustained contact can lose contact through a sequence of impacts with increasing amplitude. Previous simulations of reverse chatter have considered only constant external loads, which do not adequately model the forces exerted on a piece of chalk. The current work presents simulation results for a model system in the presence of a control algorithm that mimics the human hand by attempting to keep the chalk in contact with the chalkboard. The simulations reveal that there exist physically realistic parameter values for which a loss of contact occurs that cannot be attributed to either the classical Painlevé paradox or dynamical jam, but which can only be attributed to reverse chatter. Furthermore, the subsequent motion of the system after losing contact is found to be strikingly similar to that of chalk hopping on a chalkboard, to a hitherto unparalleled degree. These results show that neither the classical Painlevé paradox nor dynamical jam is necessary for hopping behavior, and suggest that reverse chatter may be the most plausible explanation for chalk hopping.

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