Assessing Influence of Road Roughness on Driver Behavior: Exploratory Step Through Dynamic Driving Simulator

Road roughness represents a key parameter in pavement management systems as it affects driver’s riding comfort, pavement performance and Vehicle Operating Costs. Ride quality is related to in-vehicle vibration that, in turn, is dependent on the level of road roughness, on the speed chosen by the driver and on the inertial and mechanical characteristics of the vehicles. Several studies have highlighted that, under certain conditions, driver may be induced to vary his speed in order to reach an acceptable in-vehicle vibration level according to his subjective exposure threshold. In this paper, a further contribution on this issue is presented. A dynamic driving simulator (DDS) employing a real car fixed on a 6 degrees of freedom motion platform is currently operating at the TEST Laboratory in Naples. The DDS system is able to reproduce most of the accelerations the occupants feel, in particular those arising from turning and braking maneuvers and from dynamic interaction with pavement surface singular irregularities. A team of researchers from University of Naples “Federico II”, Second University of Naples, University of Cassino (and the Oktal Company) have improved the system allowing the implementation of a module simulating vehicle vibrations induced by distributed irregularities. In this paper, the development of the vibration simulation module and the results from preliminary experimental calibration procedures are briefly reported. The initial outcomes of the performed tests seem to fairly agree with similar published results derived from technical literature