31. March 2021 : An open access toolkit for studies of traffic and automated driving in VR

Nosrat Nezami F, Wächter MA, Maleki N, Spaniol P, Kühne LM, Haas A, Pingel JM, Tiemann L, Nienhaus F, Keller L, König SU, König P and Pipa G (2021)
Westdrive X LoopAR: An open-access virtual reality project in Unity for evaluating user interaction methods during take-over requests
https://doi.org/10.3390/s21051879
Sensors 21:1879

With the further development of highly automated vehicles, drivers will engage in non-related tasks while being driven.
To investigate the crucial question of how potentially distracted drivers get back into the control-loop quickly and safely when the car requests a takeover, we developed a comprehensive virtual reality toolkit for the Unity 3D game engine enabling fast adaptations to various human-machine interaction experiments, including close monitoring of the subject.
A modular VR environment of roughly 25km², a package of 125 animated pedestrians and numerous vehicles, including motorbikes, trucks, and cars, plus all needed nature assets account for a highly dynamic, realistic, versatile and yet cost-efficient setup.
The primary purpose of this ambitious project is to serve as an open access toolkit that enables interested researchers to conduct realistic virtual reality research studies without costly and immobile simulators.