Driving Simulation Laboratory

The Transportation Engineering program at SEAS has a Driving Simulators Laboratory located at the George Washington University Virginia Science and Technology Campus (VSTC). The corresponding equipment is located at Exploration Hall.

The Laboratory houses two driving simulators: a Car-Driving Simulator and a Truck-Driving Simulator.
 

Car-Driving Simulator (CDS)

The state-of-the-art Car-Driving Simulator is used to conduct vital vehicle and driving behavior research. This simulator allows CISR to perform driving experiments in a safe and controlled laboratory setting. Download the technical specifications for the simulator (PDF).
Car-Driving Simulator

Our full-featured Car-Driving Simulator is able to provide a life-like driving experience. The visual display is a curved screen with 135-degree wide-angle field of view. In addition, auditory feedback is provided through stereo components. The steering wheel produces an authentic feeling of road grip through a generated counter torque. A validated vehicle dynamics program governs the behavior of the vehicles in the simulation.

The Car-Driving Simulator performs comprehensive data collection, including eye-tracking data. The data includes the complete vehicle dynamics, as well as the steering angle, throttle position, and brake position. In addition, an eye-tracking system provides accurate measurement of the driver’s focal point of attention, pupil size, blink rate, and the time that eyes stay shut during blinks.
 

Truck-Driving Simulator (TDS)

In a project supported by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), a Truck-Driving Simulator was developed for driver behavioral studies. A partnership was established with the Modeling, Simulation, and Driving Simulators (MSIS) research unit of the French National Institute for Transport and Safety Research (INRETS). This laboratory is now re-modified and updated internally by the GWTP research students and faculty members for added flexibility leveraging the new advancements in virtual reality, visualization, and computing technologies.

Truck-Driving Simulator Structure

 

Cyclist Simulator (CS)

With the support of the SEAS Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), a cyclist simulator has been developed and placed at the university DC campus. The simulator is equipped with accelerator and brake sensors and allow immersing the participating human subjects into a virtual cyclist environment with different weather, geometric and traffic configurations.

 

Additional connected smaller simulators are developed by the GWTP team and are placed at different GW campus locations.