STISIM Drive - Vehicle Tab Box

Because this is a driving simulation, the simulator must try and present a realistic vehicle and therefore you must set some parameters that describe the vehicle the that is being driven. These parameters include the vehicle dynamics as well as some characteristics for the vehicle itself. The dynamics are set in the Dynamics tab box whereas the Vehicle tab box allows you to specify physical characteristics of the vehicle. When the vehicle tab is chosen, a tab box similar to the following will be displayed:

Looking at the tab box you will notice that the parameters are separated into 3 different areas, a group of check boxes that turn on and off different vehicle characteristics, a button that allows you to change the characteristics of the rear view mirrors, and finally a group of vehicle parameters that you can set.

The check boxes simply enable or disable the option listed. When a check appears in the box to the left of the option, then the option is enabled otherwise it will not be used. There are currently 3 options that you can enable/disable, the speedometer, the vehicle hood, and turns of more than 90 degrees. If the speedometer option is activated, a bar speedometer will be displayed at the bottom of the roadway display scene. Numbers will be displayed for various increments of speed and a sliding bar will be used to show the current vehicle speed. The colors for the different sections of the speedometer are set using the Assign Simulation Colors option. In general you will always want to enable the speedometer option so that the driver has some idea of the speed they are going, however, if you have a driving buck with a functioning speedometer, then you will want to disable this option. Since drivers will be operating in a simulated environment and do not have all of the cues that they would during real driving, we have included an option that displays a hood. This provides the driver with some much needed pointing information. By lining the vehicle up so that the hood is within their lane, the driver can then accurately get a sense of where their vehicle is positioned in the lane and then drive accordingly. Like the speedometer, this option should almost always be used. The only time not to use it is if you have a driving buck with a hood. The final check box option allows you to specify if the driver can make turns that are greater than 90 degrees. This basically enables and disables the driver's ability to make U-turns and does not affect turning at intersections. If this option is enabled, the driver will be able to make U-turns and head back in the direction that they just came. To more tightly control your scenario and where the driver can drive within your scenario, make sure this is disabled otherwise the drivers may be able to go all over the place.

The big box in the bottom half of the tab box allows you to specify various vehicle characteristics such as length and width, the first of which is the driver's eye height. This parameter is important because where the driver views the roadway scene has a big impact on how they drive. The eye height is generally dictated by the height of the driver's seat so if you are simulating a big truck you will want the eye height much higher than for a sports car. Eye height is measured from the ground up to the driver's eye. The next parameter also deals with how the driver perceives the roadway and is called look ahead distance. When a driver makes decisions about what to do, they are basing that on what they see ahead of them and how far out in front that they are looking. The distance that they are looking ahead of them combined with their eye height determines the eye angle that will be used by the simulator to view the roadway scene. The vehicle width and length are used by the simulator in its collision detection algorithms to determine if the driver comes in contact with various other objects in the roadway scene. Finally the maximum vehicle speed is used to limit how fast the driver can go. This option is generally used to prevent drivers from driving much too fast and therefore altering the study you are trying to perform. If you want the speed to be limited based on the dynamic parameters, then set the maximum speed to a high number like 200 and then the vehicle's speed will be limited by the engine characteristics and the aerodynamic drag. One other note on the vehicle speed, when the autopilot mode is chosen (I/O Control tab), the maximum vehicle speed is used as the initial autopilot speed.

The final vehicle parameter option is the rear view mirror button. Clicking on this button will display a dialog window similar to the one shown here:

This dialog window allows you to enter parameters for use with rear view mirrors that can be displayed in the roadway display scene. The mirrors allow the driver to see if vehicles are approaching from the rear and if so, act accordingly, as well as displaying objects in the mirrors as the driver passes them by. As you can see, this dialog box is separated into sections for each of the vehicle's mirrors. There are 3 mirror choices shown but all of them will only be activated if your system is a wide field of view system, otherwise only the center mirror will be accessible. Each mirror corresponds to a different graphics processor so for instance you can not use the left mirror on the right screen, you can only use the left mirror on the left screen. Each individual mirror has a check box that will activate the mirror. Simply clicking on the box will activate the mirror. To remove the mirror from the roadway display scene, simply uncheck the box. If the mirror is active you can set its position and sizing on the screen using the Screen Position parameters (refer to Screen Sizing for details on screen parameters). Setting the left and top parameters will specify the mirror's position while setting the right and bottom parameters will set the mirror's sizing. After the sizing is set, you can then set the angle that the mirror will be set at. This allows you to adjust the mirror to your own personal setting. The Side/Side option allows you to move the mirror back and forth like you would in your own vehicle and is limited to plus or minus 20 degrees. The Up/Down motion allows you to adjust the mirror up and down with a limit of plus or minus 5 degrees. You may also set the mirrors at run time using the F9, F10 keys for side to side and F11, F12 for up and down motion. If for some reason you change everything and don't like what you have done, you can go back to the STISIM Drive default settings by simply clicking on the Default Settings button.