Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2020, Mechanical Engineering

Four motion cueing algorithms are evaluated for a low cost, driver-in-loop (DiL) simulator with limited platform motion: roll, pitch, and heave. The DiL is augmented with additional non-vestibular cueing. Double lane change and slalom maneuvers are chosen for evaluating the algorithms because they incorporate lateral dynamics. The primary aim of the simulator is for vehicle assessment purposes. The population for conducting the experimental runs is restricted to be drivers with no prior professional or competitive driving background. For this reason, the experiment is designed to have the maneuvers driven under sub-limit conditions. The experiments are conducted in a virtual driving environment designed for conducting isolated experiments. The virtual world was designed to increase the ease of repeatability of the experimental runs. The simulated vehicle run data is gathered and analyzed based on vehicle lateral dynamics, driver input, and driver's performance. Statistical analysis is conducted to identify the presence of significant differences resulting from the variation of motion cueing algorithms over 24 drivers. Within subjects analysis, paired hypothesis testing, and effect size are computed for analyzing the driving data. The drivers are also monitored for simulator sickness using a subjective questionnaire for each of their experimental driving runs. The results from this study can be used to identify the effect of change of motion cueing on the regular drivers. Furthermore, it can also assist in quantitatively ranking the algorithms evaluated. If any of the algorithms are observed to cause drastic degradation in driver's performance, it will be eliminated in the continual of the research. Statistical analysis showed that double lane change was better at differentiating the cueing algorithms. For both the maneuvers, driver input changed significantly with similar vehicle performance and driver's performance. The vehicle motion-based cueing alg (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Rebecca Dupaix (Advisor); Stephanie Stockar (Committee Member); Jeffrey Chrstos (Other) Subjects: Automotive Engineering; Engineering; Mechanical Engineering