Driving simulator room specialty and best practices | Infohub

Facility summary

Specialization: Simulation of vehicles experiments, eye-tracking, (EEG)
Max Capacity: 3 Persons
Location: Langezijds, LA 1507 & LA2504
Get Room Key from: Langezijds, LA 1501

About driving simulator

The driving simulator room is set up to be used for research involving the simulation of vehicles. The room is set up with Logitech gear, including a seat, steering wheel, pedals, and shift stick, as well as a moving base that replicates movements felt in real life driving. It also includes speakers and lights to replicate traffic sounds and lighting. This set up offers a more realistic experience for the users and stimulates actual driving behavior and action. The visual simulation can be projected onto the wall covered by a 2×3 meter screen. Alternatively, researchers can make use of the two VR headsets available in the room, which are the Varjo VR headset or the Oculus Rift S. The Varjo VR-2 Pro headset includes the option for eye-tracking.

Currently, two scenes are available for research in the driving simulator. The first option that is available is a self-driving vehicle. This scene includes a physical slider that is designed to continuously measure trust. The second scene allows users to drive on a highway manually while receiving instructions on when to take an exit or change a lane during the simulation.

Using the driving simulator room and their equipment

The Driving Simulator Set: Researchers can use the driving simulator to drive a vehicle by using the steering wheel and pedals. The additional option of the moving base allows the simulation to replicate the haptic feedback of a real vehicle.

The VR Glasses: Two VR glasses are available in this room as an alternative to a screen. The Varjo VR-2 Pro glasses have an additional option for eye-tracking. By pairing the VR headset with the moving base subjects can experience an immersive simulated driving experience.

Is the driving simulator room suitable for your research?

When should you use the Driving Simulator room?
The options for self-driving and manually driven vehicles in combination with VR headsets or large screens allows researchers to research driving behavior and concepts such as trust towards autonomous vehicles.

When should you not use the Driving Simulator room?
If you require an EEG set to measure the brain waves of your subjects, you should choose the mobile driving simulator in the Recognice room. If you solely require a simulation without the need for additional equipment specific to this room you may reserve single VR headsets and book one of the Flexperiment rooms.

Best practices driving simulator

When in the room, there are some ground rules you must abide by.

Working in the room

Keep the room clean! Eat in the student lounge or down in the mess hall.
Keep silent in the room! This is not only for your own research but also for the other research taking place in the rooms next door.
Don’t move the equipment (unless discussed).
In case of questions or problems, report these to the BMS Lab Room LA1501.
Don’t overheat the room during winter.
Close windows and turn off light when finished.
Bring the key back to LA1501 or the key dropbox in front of LA1501.
The room keys cannot leave the building. If you want to use the facilities outside office hours, indicate this in – your reservation. Make sure you are informed about the procedures regarding access of the building outside office hours.

Working with participants

When using Informed Consent forms, make sure you guarantee your participants’ anonymity, so do not leave the forms behind.
Participants can be noisy in the hallway when waiting to participate in an experiment. For this reason, participants have to wait downstairs in the mess hall or in the student lounge on the first floor of the Cubicus.

Working with our equipment

You can make use of the PC and equipment you reserved. You are not allowed to use equipment you have not reserved.
The PCs are not clean installed after every research, so take care of your data during/after your research.
It is obligatory to copy your data after every day of data gathering onto the T4P data server.
After the research, delete any sensitive data from the PC.
Let us know through the equipment reservation forms what hardware you want to use. This way we can make sure all the necessary software is there for you.

Hygiene protocol

The below states the hygiene procedures related to persons. For equipment, follow the disinfection procedure for the instrument.

1 – Persons

1.1 – Postpone the study in case of flu, cold or other infection in the trial conductor or subject (V).

1.2 – Ensure good general body and clothing hygiene during the trial period (V).

1.3 – Always wear disposable gloves during the following physiological procedures:

a – cleaning/abrading the subject’s skin (V).
b – application of electrodes (V).
c – removal of electrodes (V).
d – all actions related to blood, sperm or vaginal fluid (V).
e – working with disinfectants (V).
f – in the case of clearly visible wounds or skin irritation in the subject or experimenter (V).

1.4 – The simplest disinfection procedure is hand washing. This should be done, regardless of the use of gloves:

a – prior to physiological actions (V).
b – after physiological actions (V).
c – after using the toilet (V).
d – after sneezing, coughing or blowing the nose (use paper tissues) (V).
e – after unexpected contact with blood or other body fluids (V).

1.5 – It is preferable not to wear rings during examination (V).

1.6 – Nails should preferably be kept short and clean during the study period (V).

Want to use the driving simulator lab space?

First go through the steps on how to reserve our facilities or go directly through the registration of your request if you haven't do so already. If you have already followed these steps, go directly to our booqable page to make a reservation:

How to reserve lab spaces