Author(s)

Seyyed Meisam Taheri, Kojiro Matsushita, Minoru Sasaki

Department of Human and Information Systems Engineering, Gifu University, Gifu, Japan.

Driving a vehicle is one of the most common daily yet hazardous tasks. One of the great interests in recent research is to characterize a driver’s behaviors through the use of a driving simulation. Virtual reality technology is now a promising alternative to the conventional driving simulations since it provides a more simple, secure and user-friendly environment for data collection. The driving simulator was used to assist novice drivers in learning how to drive in a very calm environment since the driving is not taking place on an actual road. This paper provides new insights regarding a driver’s behavior, techniques and adaptability within a driving simulation using virtual reality technology. The theoretical framework of this driving simulation has been designed using the Unity3D game engine (5.4.0f3 version) and programmed by the C# programming language. To make the driving simulation environment more realistic, the HTC Vive Virtual reality headset, powered by Steamvr, was used. 10 volunteers ranging from ages 19 - 37 participated in the virtual reality driving experiment. Matlab R2016b was used to analyze the data obtained from experiment. This research results are crucial for training drivers and obtaining insight on a driver’s behavior and characteristics. We have gathered diverse results for 10 drivers with different characteristics to be discussed in this study. Driving simulations are not easy to use for some users due to motion sickness, difficulties in adopting to a virtual environment. Furthermore, results of this study clearly show the performance of drivers is closely associated with individual’s behavior and adaptability to the driving simulator. Based on our findings, it can be said that with a VR-HMD (Virtual Reality-Head Mounted Display) Driving Simulator enables us to evaluate a driver’s “performance error”, “recognition errors” and “decision error”. All of which will allow researchers and further studies to potentially establish a method to increase driver safety or alleviate “driving errors”.

Driving Simulator, Virtual Reality, Head Mounted Display, Driver Behavior, Safety, Driving Errors, Unity3D

Taheri, S. , Matsushita, K. and Sasaki, M. (2017) Development of a Driving Simulator with Analyzing Driver’s Characteristics Based on a Virtual Reality Head Mounted Display. Journal of Transportation Technologies, 7, 351-366. doi: 10.4236/jtts.2017.73023.