A driving simulation platform applied to develop Driver Assistance Systems

This paper presents a driving simulation platform for the development of Driver Assistance Systems (DAS) with the main purpose of promoting the testing of DAS hardware and advancing the verification of DAS performance. The platform uses a combination of two simulation loops, Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) and Driver-In-the-Loop (DIL). Its hardware consists of a simulation computer, a monitor computer, a vision computer, DAS actuators as well as a dummy car. Its software components include several specific ones. When designing its monitor software, a GUI-Driven-by-S-Function (GUIDSF) method is proposed to eliminate the delay in the displaying of the simulation data. The vision rendering software uses adjustment based on the principle of optical projection, considerably improving the driver's perception of being immersed in the virtual traffic scene. The success of the developed platform is demonstrated by HIL experiments of actuators and DIL experiments of ACC. They demonstrate that the proposed actuator control algorithm possesses good tracking capability and ACC is capable of improving ride comfort and reducing driver workload, and consequently, the platform is capable of speeding up DAS development.