The purpose of this study was to address two problems of relevance for driving simulators as research tools. The first aim was to follow up the finding by Harms (IRRD 490636) that lateral position differed between real car driving and simulated car driving. The second aim was to investigate whether a simulator that can provide kinaesthetic feedback during driving, can better stimulate drivers to behave as in a real life situation, compared to a simulator without that capacity. Seventeen subjects drove an instrumented car on a real road, under real traffic conditions. In the next phase the subjects drove a simulation of the real road, including the traffic conditions they experienced when driving the instrumented car on the real road. All subjects drove the simulation of the real road with, and without kinaesthetic feedback from a moving base system. The results showed that when other road users were included in the simulated driving task, the difference in lateral position reported by Harms disappeared, as also suggested by Harms. It was found that kinaesthetic feedback provided by the moving base system had a significant effect on the subjects' variation of lateral position. A conclusion was that kinaesthetic feedback plays an important role in keeping the car on a steady course in the driving lane. (Author/publisher)
Abstract