Advanced Virtual Development Methods for evaluating Communication of Automated Vehicles and Vulnerable Road Users

Purpose and goal: The project had three main objective:

1. Identify "state-of-the-art" in audio / visual external communication between conventional road users and self-driving vehicles in general and with a focus on interactions with unprotected road users.

2. Develop a simulation platform and methodology for analyzing interactions between self-driving vehicles and unprotected road users in "virtual reality".

3. Test a conceptual audio / visual scenario in the developed simulation platform to examine the simulator´s reliability and realism. Expected results and effects:

In the project, a bicycle simulator in VR has been developed and an experiment carried out to examine how studies that focus on future vehicle communication can be carried out and how reliable and realistic the simulation is.

The results show that the participants were unsure of how big and how close the electric trucks were, which made them more careful. But the results also indicate that the test subjects generally cycled faster and were more aggressive in the simulation compared to observed cyclists at the real location.

Approach and implementation: The project consisted of 3 different parts:

1) A literature review on Audio and visual communication technolgies and simulation methodology with a focus on cyclists.

2) The development of the bike simulator in VR was done using Design Science Research Methodology which denotes the most ciritcal steps during product development.

3) An experiment has been carried out where 24 participants have experienced a number of scenarios where traffic has been simulated based on video observations made at the site with drones.