Driving simulator facility

Student with both hands on the wheel of a driving simulator

A student's arm on the steering wheel of a driving simulator

The exterior of a Land Rover driving simulator with screens showing a panoramic view

More Information

About the Driving simulator facility

The Southampton University Driving Simulator (SUDS) includes a Land Rover Discovery vehicle and simulation software. It provides an immersive driving experience for human factors research. This covers several areas such as human performance and our interaction with computers, products, tools and modern day procedures.

This facility includes:

a self-contained lab with a separate control room
a full Land Rover Discovery vehicle
3 projectors providing a 135-degree forward field of view
2 simulation software packages (SCANeR Studio and rFpro)
simulated door mirrors with mini-LCD monitors
a rear projection screen to allow use of the rear-view mirror
in-vehicle mounted webcams

Technical specification

Car driving simulator software

SCANeR Studio offers the ability to design all kinds of road environment. We can also specify the behaviour of AI cars, motorbikes, bicycles, and pedestrians. It generates data on driving performance, such as vehicle speed, lane position, and headway.

rFpro is a high-fidelity realistic driving simulator with vehicle dynamics analysis, testing, and driver training. It features high-definition laser scanned versions of real roads.

Data capture

Data is captured at 100Hz and includes interactions with all controls in the vehicle and simulated variables such as:

speed
headway distance
lane position

The software can run on a desktop system using a single screen and a gaming steering wheel and linked pedals.

Functions and controls

In the car driving simulator, information can be provided through the vehicle’s original instrument cluster or through a re-configurable touchscreen display. The car’s native audio system delivers simulation sounds, and all vehicle controls are fully functional.

Control inputs are interpreted directly from the vehicle’s Controller Area Network and sent to simulation software. A secondary application sends the data to a Windows game controller driver. The car driving simulator can make outputs for any software that accepts controller inputs.