Design and Control of a Small-Clearance Driving Simulator

This paper presents a driving simulation whose aim is twofold: (1) to investigate the possibility of reducing motion clearance to achieve compact and low-cost driving simulators and (2) to evaluate multimodal and immersive virtual reality motion restitution in platooning driving. The choice has been made for a driving simulator having at least two degrees of freedom (DOF). These consist of the longitudinal displacement and seat rotations. The simulator is also equipped with a force feedback steering wheel for virtual drive assistance. These components are gathered on a serial kinematics-type platform to facilitate a control scheme and avoid the architecture complexity. A comparative study was made to devise a motion cueing strategy, taking into account both the psychophysical and technological constraints. Experimentations were carried out for several case combinations of the longitudinal displacement and seat rotations.