Garrison says the simulator offers a safer way to evaluate driver performance as compared to realworld road-test. “When you wreck an actual car, there’s a lot more at stake than just a bruised ego. Not only could people be hurt, but it also costs money to continually replace the car,” Garrison explained. “When someone wrecks the simulator, we have a good laugh, then reset and go on our merry way. You just can’t do that with road tests.” The researchers have the ability to project any environment into the simulator. For the police officer test, they use a city scenario: a four-lane road, with traffic lights and other cars. Other environments available to researchers at CAVS include a desert, for military applications, and a simulated highway. Any driving situation can be replicated in the simulator as long as it is designed for man-in-the-loop interaction.
option; making it less realistic,” Garrison said. It is also important that the simulations not break down because a person does something unexpected during a test. She explained that man-in-the-loop means that human action directly affects what happens in the simulation and whether it is a desired action or not, it’s important data to collect.
“When you wreck an actual car, there’s a lot more at stake than just a bruised ego. Not only could people be hurt, but it also costs money to continually replace the car,” Garrison explained. “When someone wrecks the simulator, we have a good laugh, then reset and go on our merry way. You just can’t do that with road tests.”
“This is an engineering center, so in everything we do the question comes back to, what does this mean for engineering,” Garrison said. “We’ve got to understand how humans interact with an environment so that we can create better products and build better systems to be safe and effective in the real world.” Want an inside look at the CAVS driving simulator? Scan this code with your mobile device or visit www.bagley.msstate.edu/momentum/2011/swerve. html to see it in action.
“Video games are scripted, so if you don’t want someone to do something, you simply don’t put it in the storyline, but if you do that in a research situation, you are potentially taking away a person’s
Bagley College of Engineering
Momentum
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