A fully customizable truck-driving simulator for the care of people suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Abstract

Considering that multiple issues impact the psychological health of truckers and that about 80% of truckers survived at fatal car accidents, it seems that truckers are likely to suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. In addition, little research deals with the use of Virtual Reality technologies as a therapy for truckers suffering from this illness. This paper concerns the creation of a fully customizable virtual environment to help truckers at facing their fears through an Exposure Therapy. Proposed customization aims at targeting the factors that do affect the mental health of a trucker. For this, we designed a truck-driving simulator that can easily and rapidly replicate multiple real life environments (different weather conditions, several types of neighborhoods, various traffic conditions, etc.). Doing so, we propose a simulator that may fit the needs of several profils of truckers suffering from PTSD.