Publication

Driving simulators play an important role in the automotive field, especially in the research about human factors and in the development of driving assistance systems. For this reason, driving experience should be as close as possible to reality. The mathematical model, describing vehicle dynamics, plays a fundamental part in providing this “reality feel”, since it is used by the simulator to compute vehicle motion. This Master´s thesis has the aim of refining an existing vehicle dynamic model for a driving simulator, developed in Modelica ® programming language, in order to make the driving experience closer to reality. In particular, this work is focused into two areas: the first concerns the development of vertical dynamics, in order to extend the degrees of freedom of the vehicle model from ten to fourteen. The second is related to the development of a more accurate steering system model, for both improving the steering feel and the steering dynamics. The vehicle model has been validated through different steps. First of all, its response to different manoeuvres has been compared with the one provided by a real car. This comparison has been made by confronting the model data with the real vehicle ones, coming from test track measurements. Then the model has been tested in the simulator by different drivers, who had to evaluate its behaviour.