Cambridge University Engineering Department turns to Ansible Motion for driver behaviour data

Cambridge University Engineering Department (CUED) has worked with Ansible Motion to support a new PhD study into human driver behaviour, funded by Toyota Motor Europe.

For more than 25 years, researchers at CUED have examined driver-vehicle dynamics to enhance vehicle design and safety. The latest study compares novice and expert drivers’ steering behaviour during extreme vehicle manoeuvres, revealing distinct learning patterns and control styles.

Initially, existing experimental data from an instrumented vehicle on a test track was used for the study, where drivers repeatedly performed identical obstacle avoidance manoeuvres. From this data, differences in steering and learning strategies between drivers were identified. The repeated manoeuvres used for the existing data limited what could be learnt about the evolution of a driver’s steering strategy.

A virtual test-driving experiment was then devised in which 20 test subjects steered a vehicle along randomly curving paths using Ansible Motion’s dynamic Delta S3 DIL simulator. Ansible Motion counts some of the largest global automotive OEMs such as Honda, Ford, BMW and General Motors among its customers, alongside top-level racing teams from Formula 1 to WRC.

Software from Ansible Motion’s sister company, rFPro – the world’s most realistic, engineering-grade visual simulation environment – helped generate early results confirming differing learning rates between drivers, validating the approach.

Norwich-based Ansible Motion’s simulator includes a patented six-degree-of-freedom Stratiform motion system and wrap-around projection graphics, providing a fully immersive environment for collecting precise data.

Its ultra-low latency and large excursion capability ensure realistic dynamics, which is critical for studying human-vehicle interactions in research studies.

It also integrates with sophisticated vehicle and subsystem physics models, Hardware-in-the-Loop test benches and other toolchains.

David Cole, professor of mechanical engineering at CUED, said: “In order to collect experimental data in a safe and consistent environment, we made the decision to use a driving simulator with immersive motion and graphics.

“We are very grateful to Ansible Motion for their generous in-kind contribution to the research, by providing access to their simulator software, hardware and technical support. PhD researcher Harry Fieldhouse took 20 test subjects to Ansible Motion’s R&D Centre and performed the experiment, which ran according to plan.”

Dan Clark, MD of Ansible Motion, said: “Studies such as this bridge the gap between academia and industry, so we’re proud to support Cambridge University Engineering Department’s ground-breaking research.”