Virtual validation of complex infrastructure using VR driving based on Unity

Synopsis:

How could they possibly think that this design was a clever idea”. Almost every driver knows that thought.   Using VR Driving Simulators every engineer can immersively experience the proposed design through the eyes of future drivers. This will result in a better understanding of human behaviour during the design process. 

Learning Objectives:

1. Learn about utilizing Virtual Reality and Driving Simulator Gear to validate your design on safety and usability
2. Bring your existing design/BIM data into a game engine to create a VR driving simulator
3. Learn about the essentials of human behaviour related to road design and Virtual Reality driving simulators

Body:

Designing the most economically advantageous infrastructure asset can be hard, especially in complex urban situations which require leaving some of the standard regulations behind.  
Since BIM is commonly used in these projects you might be interested in the following concept. Independent traffic ‘safety’ auditors nowadays use static design visualizations and videos to  validate the design for safety and usability. These tools leave quite a gap for interpretation on how drivers will react in real life. 
With virtual reality and driving (racing) simulator gear we can improve  the insight during design validations. This way you will be able to narrow down the gap for interpretation by the auditors and improve the quality and safety of the design. 
This presentation provides you with methods and guidelines that can be deployed in order to start using a VR driving simulator for complex infrastructure projects with human drivers involved. 

The features we will focus on will be:  
-The essentials of road design related to human factors (human behaviour); 
-The essentials of driving simulators and Virtual Reality related to human factors; 
-How to configure the hardware and software for your validation purposes;  
-Setting up the process from BIM data to usable geometry in the game engine Unity; 
-Setting up the environment and car physics in a general validation scenario; 
-Setting up the dynamic surroundings for a specific validation scenario; 
-Utilizing simulator data in graphs that represent how the sim driver react to the scenario; 
-Steps on how to implement these tools without major impact on an infrastructure project; 
-Live demo on how to use the simulator to validate the specific criteria on stopping sight. 

These kinds of simulations can be used for many purposes like testing with a non-professional crowd, making design choices with your team while you are ahead of any deadlines or in the way it was used for this thesis, to validate a definitive road design. It works on every type of infrastructure asset whether it is a tunnel, bridge, interchange, or city road. Any project with design complexity caused by human behaviour should consider taking advantage of these kinds of simulations.