From Design to Experiments of a 2-DOF Vehicle Driving Simulator

Driving simulators are increasingly being used for driver evaluation and/or education. In this paper, we describe the design and the modeling aspects of a 2-degree-of-freedom (2-DOF) low-cost motion platform allowing the rendering of the longitudinal and yaw movements. This prototype will be used to study various configurations of motion rendering and the impact of these variants on controllability and simulator sickness. The whole motion platform is considered as two coupled systems that are linked mechanically. The first system consists of a motorized rail for the longitudinal movement, which is mounted on top of the second system, which is a motorized turret allowing rotation of the platform. We present the platform mechanics and a number of experimental studies that have been carried out to obtain a characterization of the platform capabilities and frequency responses, as well as to assess platform performance in a classical drive operation. First conclusions and directions of future work are presented.