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Collection and comparison of driver/passenger

physiologic and behavioural data in simulation and


on-road driving

Daniele Ruscio Luca Bascetta, Alessandro Gabrielli, Matteo Matteucci


Department of Psychology, i.Drive Laboratory Department of Electronics Information and Bioengineering,
Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Politecnico di i.Drive Laboratory
Milano Politecnico di Milano
Milan, Italy Milan, Italy

Dedy Ariansyah, Monica Bordegoni, Giandomenico Lorenzo Mussone


Caruso Department of Architecture, Built Environment and
Department of Mechanical Engineering, i.Drive Laboratory Construction Engineering; i.Drive Laboratory
Politecnico di Milano Politecnico di Milano
Milan, Italy Milan, Italy

AbstractThe i.Drive Lab has developed inter-disciplinary hypothetical scenarios, before the actual implementation.
methodology for the analysis and modelling of behavioral and However, the use of driving simulators rises several questions
physiological responses related to the interaction between driver, about external validity of the results [1]. It could be questioned
vehicle, infrastructure, and virtual environment. The present if the virtual simplification of reality and the cognitive
research outlines the development of a validation study for the awareness of being in a protected contest, could affect the type
combination of virtual and real-life research methodologies. of data gathered by simulator studies. An accurate validation
i.Drive driving simulator was set up to replicate the data of data collected in real-life and virtual simulator, could
acquisition of environmental and physiological information provide contextualized data that would provide a more certain
coming from an equipped i.Drive electric vehicle with same
external validity to the research [2].
sensors. i.Drive tests are focused on the identification of drivers
affective states that are able to define recurring situations and
psychophysical conditions that are relevant for road-safety and A. Collect Users Behaviors and Physiological Modifications
drivers comfort. Results show that it is possible to combine To measure and compare user behaviors and responses,
different research paradigms to collect low-level vehicle control tests should be focused on the identification of drivers
behavior and higher-level cognitive measures, in order to develop affective states that are able to define recurring situations and
data collection and elaboration for future mobility challenges. psychophysical conditions relevant for road-safety and
drivers comfort. The identification of which type of state can
Keywordsdriving assessment; physiological measures; virtual be registered by psychological and physiological measures is
reality simulator; test vehicle; on-road tests
related not only to individual variability, but also to the type of
driving situation that the driver has to face. Simulator
I. INTRODUCTION validation studies have tended to assess speed and speed
Modern driving simulators have reached levels of realism adaptation [3], and lane keeping [4], in order to measure
and immersions that can provide very accurate driving relatively low-level vehicle control, like perceptual-motor
experience to drivers and, at the same time, grant to abilities. However, the driving task is a more complex
researchers a precise measurement of driving behaviors across performance, that involves situation awareness, risk
different virtual scenarios, with solid internal validity. The use perception, and a series of behavioral changes associated to
of virtual simulations allows many applications both for traffic active controlling and decision-making situations, like
control (e.g. measure the impact of signing and road marks on decision to adjust the speed, perform a driving maneuver like
driver performance) and for urban planning rules (e.g. overtaking or stopping at a pedestrian crossing [5]. Higher-
measure the impact of building distance from road or of lateral level cognitive measures, like frequency-domain measure of
sight in crossroads). All these types of measurement are heart rate variability [6] and electrodermal activity, are
limited by survey costs in real environment and without virtual valuable indexes to measure effort, workload [7], as well as
simulation, it is also impossible to reason precisely on the situation awareness of experiencing Virtual vs. non-Virtual
Reality environments [8]. Therefore, a comparison of implemented to perform validation and propose a guideline for
behavioral and psycho-physiological data in virtual vs. real that will be the object of future works.
scenario, provides valuable information on the way affective
states can be modelled during driving performances [9]. At the D. i.Drive Lab
same time, a comparison study could help to describe the The i.Drive Lab (Interaction between Driver, Road
nature and the extent of relative-differences between drivers Infrastructure, Vehicle, and Environment) has developed inter-
during critical driving conditions, helping the modelling and disciplinary competencies for the analysis and modelling of
threshold definition of affective states in a validated safe behavioral aspects related to the interaction between driver,
environment. vehicle, infrastructure, and environment in conventional or
autonomous vehicles, where the driver becomes, de facto, a
B. Absolute and Relative Validity of Driving Experience passenger (so the term driver refers to both driver and
The extent, to which the results of the simulation agree passenger). The laboratory is composed of a fixed structural
exactly with real data in numerical terms, is commonly called component, based on a Virtual Realty simulator, and a mobile
Absolute validity [10]. Absolute validity of driving simulator component, based on an instrumented vehicle. The i.Drive
is difficult to be reached because virtual simulations usually driving simulator is a fixed-based configuration, composed of
do not include some important variables like vibration, sounds a set of vehicle control device. A steering wheel Porsche 911
and haptic and kinetics feedbacks that are used in real-life GT3 RS v2 [12] with force feedback, gear shifter with
driving by the drivers to determine a particular task. However, automatic transmission, and brake, gas, and clutch pedals are
for the investigation of driver behavior, absolute validity is not mounted on a seating buck with minimal car mockup as
a necessary and essential condition. Relative validity describes shown in Fig. 1. The construction of seating buck allows the
the extent to which altering a factor in a simulation has the adjustment of seat height, steering wheel height, and the
same effect as in a real study, even if the numerical data does distance of steering wheel and pedals from the driver. Driving
not completely overlap. Relative validity is established when simulation is developed to provide multisensory information
the differences found between experimental conditions are in to recreate driving situation comparable to real-world driving
the same direction and have similar or identical magnitude on experience. The driving scene is displayed on three-screens,
both systems [11]. For validation purposes, the data of a driver 32" size with a pixel resolution of 1920 x 1080 providing 36
in the simulator should be compared in specific situations, and degrees and 165 degrees on vertical and horizontal field of
integrated with the data from interviews and indirect driving view respectively. The engine sound and surrounding traffic
parameters. The impact of the driver's perceived level of are spatialized by using Logitech Z-5500 [13], a 5.1 surround
realism or engagement during simulation can be recorded sound system with subwoofer. Additionally, haptic cues such
looking at the variations in the driving behavior and as vibration and force feedback are simulated on the steering
physiological responses. This information can contextualize wheel to aid driver in steering wheel management and heading
the nature and the extent of the relative-differences among control. Virtual driving environment is built on the Unity
virtual and driving conditions, but it is not always easy to game engine [14] that is used to interface between vehicle
record, gather and analyze those data together, to determine an controls and multi-modality displays (visual, auditory, and
exhaustive collection and comparison of driver/passenger haptic feedback) in simulator system. The driving simulator is
physiologic and behavioral data. also equipped with physiological sensors (Biograph Infinity
system from Thought Technology [15] to record
C. Open Questions Electrodermal Activity, electrocardiography, respiration rate,
Although many sensors are available off-the-shelf, only a and blood volume pressure for identifying drivers state. These
few can be used without affecting the subject performance to sensors run in a client computer and communicate with Unity
generate reliable and trustworthy data. Contrary to a controlled software running in a server computer through TCP/IP.
simulated situation, collecting data on field introduces several
confusing variables that should be taken into consideration.
First, the testing scenario in real-life environment is constantly
changing, and those changes affect not only the behavioral
responses (e.g. traffic congestions and interaction with other
vehicles), but also they impact the physiological data
acquisition, introducing temperature variability, noise artifacts
related to motion accelerations. Second, the data acquired in
real-life system require to be saved and organized in a
database so that can be easily retrieved and analyzed after the
acquisition. Since the amount of data, the dynamic structure of
data and that a loss of data of some sensors could compromise
the understanding. In addition comparison of the data
collected in simulation and on the real-life car, implies the
necessity to synchronize and timestamp all data channels, in
order to generate strings of data that can be coupled using the
same frequency and resolution, or using similar aggregate
Fig. 1. i.Drive Fixed-based driving simulator set up data acquisition.
interval. With the i.Drive Lab, we present a series of methods
be compared with the simulation data, they have to be
represented in the same way.

E. The Present Research


To set up the comparison between driver's behaviors and
psycho-physiological processes elicited in virtual vs. real-life
driving, the different data gathered by the i.Drive Lab need to
be selected and elaborated in order to provide information on
the comparison. For the present research, three significant
measures were selected for the initial comparison: Time
(seconds), Speed (Mean and Standard Deviation) and
Electrodermal Activity (Reactivity scores compared to
baseline). Previous research has found that Absolute Validity
for speed and time accuracy could be problematic, as drivers
in virtual environment tend to underestimate their own speed,
Fig. 2. i.Drive electric vehicle set up for data acquisition. driving somewhat faster than intended [16]. At the same time,
Relative validity was well established for the mean speed
This network allowed the synchronization of start and stop adopted in driving simulators, since it is commonly used for
data record across multiple data acquisition. Consequently, predicting real-life results for road design process [17]. At the
physiological data can be analyzed easily in comparison with same time, Electrodermal Activity is used as a discriminant
vehicle data (e.g., speed, acceleration, lateral position, steering variable that produces different levels of Electrodermal
angle, etc.) and driving scene recorded at 50 Hz and 30 Activity in correspondence of different events [18], but it is
frame/sec respectively based on our current system also a measure sensitive to the interaction in a virtual
implementation. Through this experimental setup, multi- environment vs. non-virtual environment [8]. The aim of the
objective data can be obtained for post-drive analysis, and the present research is to set up a pilot test, to record the
assessment of drivers virtual-task performance and behavior variability of driver's behaviors (Time and Speed) and
could be done with respect to the corresponding physiological physiological process (Electrodermal Activity) between the
state. two driving setting. We expect to validate the i.Drive Lab,
The i.Drive vehicle is an instrumented electric vehicle as finding different absolute values of the dependent measure in
shown in Figure 2. The car is equipped with external sensors: virtual vs. Real-life setting, but with a solid relative validity
2 cameras, one pointed at the front of the car and one pointed between speed, time and Electrodermal Activity responses to
on the right side, a Velodyne LIDAR sensor with a GPS events, while driving in the i.Drive Simulator and while
mounted on the top of the car and a GPS used only for driving in the i.Drive electric vehicle [19]. Based on the result
synchronization. Inside there are 2 cameras, one pointed at the of this first step, an eventual adjustment of the set up could
driver and one pointed on the street and an IMU. In order to guarantee the implementation of all the collected data in future
acquire physiological data of the driver, i.Drive vehicle is tests, to increase sample size and statistical relevance.
equipped with a Procom Infinity to record Electrodermal
Activity, electrocardiography, respiration rate, and blood II. METHODOLOGY
volume pressure. The acquiring and storing system has been
done using the ROS (Robot Operating System) framework. A. Driving Scenario
This framework is well known and it is used in the robotics
To test the relative and absolute validity, a testing scenario
field due to its high modularity. For the data storage part has
was selected for this study from an urban portion of the City
been used MongoDB, a NoSQL Database based on dynamic
of Milan - Italy. The urban circuit was chosen to include a
documents (BSON) that provides very good performance and
wide range of turning radii and roadway widths that all
a dynamic data model. The Prosilica cameras use a PTP
together require driver to adjust his behavior to safely and
(Precision Time Protocol) protocol to synchronize each other
efficiently face the circuit. The circuit is composed of a
and with the PC clock. The Velodyne sensor uses its GPS to
sequence of N=15 coherent segments: 8 straights parts, 6 turns
synchronize its internal clock. All the other sensors used in the
and 1 roundabout. In order to compare the simulation data and
i.Drive vehicle, have not a way to synchronize with the PC
the car data, at first we converted the GPS coordinates of the
clock and they are timestamped when they are acquired by the
landmarks in time references that identify when the car was
PC. Since the GPS has a high clock precision, in order to
passed on them. The beginning and end part of each segment
improve the overall synchronization precision of the sensors,
were isolated considering 15 Landmarks from Google Earth
we added to the car another GPS. This GPS is used to keep the
coordinated, and were used to rebuild the same urban portion
PC clock synchronized by the NTP (Network Time Protocol)
of Milan also in the virtual simulator, using Unity 3D (Fig. 3).
protocol. To ensure that all the data is saved without any loss
With the time references of the landmarks, we were able to
of data, is necessary to use a NoSQL database. In particular
retrieve the sensors data from the database and divide them in
we are using a MongoDB database since provides very good
parts as indicated by the landmarks. The drivers physiological
performance and a dynamic data model. Raw data coming
response and driving behavior was recorded during driving in
from the sensors that are saved in the MongoDb database can
the real-life urban circuit and in the simulated virtual
be retrieved in a json or in a csv file. Since these data need to
environment, in order to compare the same behavior in the Correlation Coefficient it revealed a strong positive correlation
overall lap, but also in the sequence of the different 15 (R = 0.89) between the distribution of the times required to
landmarks and to understand how driver would adjust to the drive in each driving segments on the IDRIVE simulator, with
changes in the driving scene. the times required to drive the same segments while driving
the i.Drive real vehicle (Fig. 4). The non-parametric Mann
B. Test Protocol Whitney test confirmed that there were no significant
Pilot test was conducted on 1 male participant (Age = 42, differences, U = 148.00, p = .123, in the time required to drive
Driving experience = 24 years, average of 20 km/week). After each driving segment in virtual simulation (N = 15, Mean
consent form was signed, demographic information was Rank = 12.62) and the time in real-life setting (N = 15, Mean
collected, as long as an ad hoc battery of psychological tests to Rank = 17.71).
control participant state (Emotional Wheel), risk perception
levels (Risk Assessment Scale) and relationship with
technology (Technology Acceptance Scale) before the
beginning of the experiment. After physiological sensors were
applied to the participant, a resting baseline of 3 minutes was
recorded for physiological data. An adaptation scenario
followed to allow the driver to feel confident with both virtual
and real car. In the following experimental sessions,
participant was asked to drive through the 15 urban segments
for five times, first on the driving simulator and after in the
real-life vehicle. One experimenter was always present in the
front seat to control the correct data acquisition, and provide
the participant with eventual assistance about the number of
remaining laps. After the end of the virtual and real
experimental session, resting baseline were recorded as well as
subjective scores for the NASA-TLX scale [20] to compare
subjective scores for workload. A debriefing session ended the
protocol. To avoid sequence effects between simulator and
real-life driving, future data acquisition tests will follow a
randomized order.

C. Statistical Analysis
To test absolute and relative validity, comparison of the
driver behavior and physiological activation between the two
experimental settings for overall values was carried out for the
sequence of the different driving segments (N = 15). The
statistical analyses were performed on the second lap for both
the experimental settings, because it did not presented
interferences of other vehicles nor other road users. Statistical
descriptives (Mean and SD) were considered for the overall
time, speed and electrodermal activity. Pearson Correlation
Coefficient was calculated to assess the relationship among
the distribution of the dependent variables across the different
driving scene (N = 15) between the two experimental settings
(i.Drive virtual simulation, i.Drive real-life vehicle). The
non-parametrical Mann-Whitney U test was used to test the
presence / absence of significant differences between the null
hypothesis of random distribution of the dependent measures
(Time, Speed and Electrodermal Activity) and the observed
values in the two experimental settings.

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION


Overall results of tested measures are reported in Table 1.
Fig. 3. Aerial view of the of the urban scenario tested for the comparison
A. Time Intervals between the real-life driving and the 3D virtual simulation, reconstructed in
The overall time required to drive one lap in the virtual Unity 3D using GPS coordinates to segment the different driving scenes. The
red pins represents the Landmarks used to define the 15 driving segments.
simulator was 94 seconds, while the overall time required in
the real-life lap was 138 seconds. Considering the Pearson
B. Cruise Speed
The mean speed kept in the entire lap in the virtual
simulator was 31.28 km/h (SD = 6.57), while the mean speed
kept in the real-life lap was 26.95 km/h (SD = 6.21). Pearson
Correlation Coefficient revealed a moderate positive
correlation (R = 0.60) between the distribution of the mean
speed kept in each driving segments on the IDRIVE simulator,
with the mean speed kept in the same segments while driving
the i.Drive real vehicle (Figure 4). The non-parametric Mann
Whitney test confirmed that there were no significant
differences, U = 108.00, p = .934, in the variance of the speed
kept to drive each driving segment in virtual simulation (N =
15, Mean Rank = 15.69) and the speed kept in each segment in
real-life setting (N = 15, Mean Rank = 15.35).

C. Electrodermal Activity
The mean value of Electrodermal Activity (EDA) recorded
during the entire lap in the virtual simulator shows an
increment of 3.38 (SD = .13) compared to the resting baseline,
while the Electrodermal Activity recorded during the entire
lap in the virtual simulator show an increment of 2.85 (SD =
.08) compared to resting baseline. Pearson Correlation
Coefficient revealed a moderate positive correlation (R = 0.60)
between the distribution of the mean speed kept in each
driving segments on the IDRIVE simulator, with the mean
speed kept in the same segments while driving the IDRIVE
real vehicle (Figure 4). The non-parametric MannWhitney
test reported that there was a significant differences, U =
174.00, p = .010, in the variance of Electrodermal Activity
recorded during each driving segment in virtual simulation (N
= 15, Mean Rank = 11.40) and the Electrodermal Activity
recoded in each segment of the real-life setting (N = 15, Mean
Rank = 19.60).

TABLE I. PERFOMANCE INDEXES


Fig. 4. Dependent variables measured across the experimental setting. No
Time (s) Speed (km/h) EDA significant differences for the distribution of Time and Speed between virtual
Driving driving and real-life driving. Significant differences were found for the
Segments i.Drive i.Drive i.Drive i.Drive i.Drive i.Drive
Sim. Car Sim. Car Sim. Car
Electrodermal Activity (EDA) between the two driving conditions.
Roundabout 11.5 15.0 18.1 18.8 0.16 -0.02
Straight AB 9.3 18.0 40.0 30.3 0.00 0.01 D. Discussion
Straight CD 2.4 3.0 29.6 21.7 -0.02 0.00 Results show that it is possible to acquire and elaborate
Straight EF 3.3 5.0 39.0 29.0 -0.07 0.02 synchronized data to set up a comparison between simulated
Straight GH 1.1 3.0 35.6 32.7 -0.07 -0.02 and real-life settings. Absolute and relative validity of
Straight IL 12.0 15.0 29.3 27.0 0.24 0.05 behaviors and psychological modifications in the different
Straight MN 1.7 2.0 32.7 28.4 -0.09 0.00 environments can be calculated for the driving simulator. In
Straight OP 1.4 4.0 34.6 31.4 -0.07 -0.02 particular, the i.Drive simulation generates a sufficiently good
Straight QA 7.0 8.0 21.4 34.5 -0.12 -0.03 virtual reconstruction of the driving environment to require the
Turn BC 11.1 14.0 32.0 20.3 0.00 0.02 driver to adopt behavioral modifications similar to the one
Turn DE 5.6 10.0 26.8 14.2 -0.05 0.10 adopted while driving i.Drive vehicle. The absolute overall
Turn FG 10.5 18.0 41.8 33.4 -0.13 0.06 time required to complete a lap in the real-life scenario was
Turn LM 4.6 6.0 26.1 24.5 -0.02 -0.02 almost 45% longer than the virtual scenario, but the time-
Turn NO 4.0 6.0 30.5 23.7 -0.02 0.03 distribution between the driving segments provided a
Turn PQ 8.0 11.0 31.6 34.3 -0.12 0.07 significantly similar delta to the one recorded in the virtual
simulator. In the same way the mean speed across the different
driving intersections seemed to outline a solid relative validity
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