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AbstractThe i.Drive Lab has developed inter-disciplinary hypothetical scenarios, before the actual implementation.
methodology for the analysis and modelling of behavioral and However, the use of driving simulators rises several questions
physiological responses related to the interaction between driver, about external validity of the results [1]. It could be questioned
vehicle, infrastructure, and virtual environment. The present if the virtual simplification of reality and the cognitive
research outlines the development of a validation study for the awareness of being in a protected contest, could affect the type
combination of virtual and real-life research methodologies. of data gathered by simulator studies. An accurate validation
i.Drive driving simulator was set up to replicate the data of data collected in real-life and virtual simulator, could
acquisition of environmental and physiological information provide contextualized data that would provide a more certain
coming from an equipped i.Drive electric vehicle with same
external validity to the research [2].
sensors. i.Drive tests are focused on the identification of drivers
affective states that are able to define recurring situations and
psychophysical conditions that are relevant for road-safety and A. Collect Users Behaviors and Physiological Modifications
drivers comfort. Results show that it is possible to combine To measure and compare user behaviors and responses,
different research paradigms to collect low-level vehicle control tests should be focused on the identification of drivers
behavior and higher-level cognitive measures, in order to develop affective states that are able to define recurring situations and
data collection and elaboration for future mobility challenges. psychophysical conditions relevant for road-safety and
drivers comfort. The identification of which type of state can
Keywordsdriving assessment; physiological measures; virtual be registered by psychological and physiological measures is
reality simulator; test vehicle; on-road tests
related not only to individual variability, but also to the type of
driving situation that the driver has to face. Simulator
I. INTRODUCTION validation studies have tended to assess speed and speed
Modern driving simulators have reached levels of realism adaptation [3], and lane keeping [4], in order to measure
and immersions that can provide very accurate driving relatively low-level vehicle control, like perceptual-motor
experience to drivers and, at the same time, grant to abilities. However, the driving task is a more complex
researchers a precise measurement of driving behaviors across performance, that involves situation awareness, risk
different virtual scenarios, with solid internal validity. The use perception, and a series of behavioral changes associated to
of virtual simulations allows many applications both for traffic active controlling and decision-making situations, like
control (e.g. measure the impact of signing and road marks on decision to adjust the speed, perform a driving maneuver like
driver performance) and for urban planning rules (e.g. overtaking or stopping at a pedestrian crossing [5]. Higher-
measure the impact of building distance from road or of lateral level cognitive measures, like frequency-domain measure of
sight in crossroads). All these types of measurement are heart rate variability [6] and electrodermal activity, are
limited by survey costs in real environment and without virtual valuable indexes to measure effort, workload [7], as well as
simulation, it is also impossible to reason precisely on the situation awareness of experiencing Virtual vs. non-Virtual
Reality environments [8]. Therefore, a comparison of implemented to perform validation and propose a guideline for
behavioral and psycho-physiological data in virtual vs. real that will be the object of future works.
scenario, provides valuable information on the way affective
states can be modelled during driving performances [9]. At the D. i.Drive Lab
same time, a comparison study could help to describe the The i.Drive Lab (Interaction between Driver, Road
nature and the extent of relative-differences between drivers Infrastructure, Vehicle, and Environment) has developed inter-
during critical driving conditions, helping the modelling and disciplinary competencies for the analysis and modelling of
threshold definition of affective states in a validated safe behavioral aspects related to the interaction between driver,
environment. vehicle, infrastructure, and environment in conventional or
autonomous vehicles, where the driver becomes, de facto, a
B. Absolute and Relative Validity of Driving Experience passenger (so the term driver refers to both driver and
The extent, to which the results of the simulation agree passenger). The laboratory is composed of a fixed structural
exactly with real data in numerical terms, is commonly called component, based on a Virtual Realty simulator, and a mobile
Absolute validity [10]. Absolute validity of driving simulator component, based on an instrumented vehicle. The i.Drive
is difficult to be reached because virtual simulations usually driving simulator is a fixed-based configuration, composed of
do not include some important variables like vibration, sounds a set of vehicle control device. A steering wheel Porsche 911
and haptic and kinetics feedbacks that are used in real-life GT3 RS v2 [12] with force feedback, gear shifter with
driving by the drivers to determine a particular task. However, automatic transmission, and brake, gas, and clutch pedals are
for the investigation of driver behavior, absolute validity is not mounted on a seating buck with minimal car mockup as
a necessary and essential condition. Relative validity describes shown in Fig. 1. The construction of seating buck allows the
the extent to which altering a factor in a simulation has the adjustment of seat height, steering wheel height, and the
same effect as in a real study, even if the numerical data does distance of steering wheel and pedals from the driver. Driving
not completely overlap. Relative validity is established when simulation is developed to provide multisensory information
the differences found between experimental conditions are in to recreate driving situation comparable to real-world driving
the same direction and have similar or identical magnitude on experience. The driving scene is displayed on three-screens,
both systems [11]. For validation purposes, the data of a driver 32" size with a pixel resolution of 1920 x 1080 providing 36
in the simulator should be compared in specific situations, and degrees and 165 degrees on vertical and horizontal field of
integrated with the data from interviews and indirect driving view respectively. The engine sound and surrounding traffic
parameters. The impact of the driver's perceived level of are spatialized by using Logitech Z-5500 [13], a 5.1 surround
realism or engagement during simulation can be recorded sound system with subwoofer. Additionally, haptic cues such
looking at the variations in the driving behavior and as vibration and force feedback are simulated on the steering
physiological responses. This information can contextualize wheel to aid driver in steering wheel management and heading
the nature and the extent of the relative-differences among control. Virtual driving environment is built on the Unity
virtual and driving conditions, but it is not always easy to game engine [14] that is used to interface between vehicle
record, gather and analyze those data together, to determine an controls and multi-modality displays (visual, auditory, and
exhaustive collection and comparison of driver/passenger haptic feedback) in simulator system. The driving simulator is
physiologic and behavioral data. also equipped with physiological sensors (Biograph Infinity
system from Thought Technology [15] to record
C. Open Questions Electrodermal Activity, electrocardiography, respiration rate,
Although many sensors are available off-the-shelf, only a and blood volume pressure for identifying drivers state. These
few can be used without affecting the subject performance to sensors run in a client computer and communicate with Unity
generate reliable and trustworthy data. Contrary to a controlled software running in a server computer through TCP/IP.
simulated situation, collecting data on field introduces several
confusing variables that should be taken into consideration.
First, the testing scenario in real-life environment is constantly
changing, and those changes affect not only the behavioral
responses (e.g. traffic congestions and interaction with other
vehicles), but also they impact the physiological data
acquisition, introducing temperature variability, noise artifacts
related to motion accelerations. Second, the data acquired in
real-life system require to be saved and organized in a
database so that can be easily retrieved and analyzed after the
acquisition. Since the amount of data, the dynamic structure of
data and that a loss of data of some sensors could compromise
the understanding. In addition comparison of the data
collected in simulation and on the real-life car, implies the
necessity to synchronize and timestamp all data channels, in
order to generate strings of data that can be coupled using the
same frequency and resolution, or using similar aggregate
Fig. 1. i.Drive Fixed-based driving simulator set up data acquisition.
interval. With the i.Drive Lab, we present a series of methods
be compared with the simulation data, they have to be
represented in the same way.
C. Statistical Analysis
To test absolute and relative validity, comparison of the
driver behavior and physiological activation between the two
experimental settings for overall values was carried out for the
sequence of the different driving segments (N = 15). The
statistical analyses were performed on the second lap for both
the experimental settings, because it did not presented
interferences of other vehicles nor other road users. Statistical
descriptives (Mean and SD) were considered for the overall
time, speed and electrodermal activity. Pearson Correlation
Coefficient was calculated to assess the relationship among
the distribution of the dependent variables across the different
driving scene (N = 15) between the two experimental settings
(i.Drive virtual simulation, i.Drive real-life vehicle). The
non-parametrical Mann-Whitney U test was used to test the
presence / absence of significant differences between the null
hypothesis of random distribution of the dependent measures
(Time, Speed and Electrodermal Activity) and the observed
values in the two experimental settings.
C. Electrodermal Activity
The mean value of Electrodermal Activity (EDA) recorded
during the entire lap in the virtual simulator shows an
increment of 3.38 (SD = .13) compared to the resting baseline,
while the Electrodermal Activity recorded during the entire
lap in the virtual simulator show an increment of 2.85 (SD =
.08) compared to resting baseline. Pearson Correlation
Coefficient revealed a moderate positive correlation (R = 0.60)
between the distribution of the mean speed kept in each
driving segments on the IDRIVE simulator, with the mean
speed kept in the same segments while driving the IDRIVE
real vehicle (Figure 4). The non-parametric MannWhitney
test reported that there was a significant differences, U =
174.00, p = .010, in the variance of Electrodermal Activity
recorded during each driving segment in virtual simulation (N
= 15, Mean Rank = 11.40) and the Electrodermal Activity
recoded in each segment of the real-life setting (N = 15, Mean
Rank = 19.60).