The project was organised in three research cycles with integrated simulator system development, and parallel work on societal impact (objective 3).
The three research cycles consisted of pilots with external participants performing in real vehicles and in simulators. This involved an extensive data collection, covering the complete data triangle of user - vehicle - environmental data. Sensors ranged from cameras and biosignals to specifically designed devices. Additional important data come from interviews with the participants: pre-test for determining a profile of each person, and post-test self-confrontations with the users explaining motivations for their own behaviour. In all cycles, all four actor types are involved: car, scooter, bicycle and pedestrian.
The first cycle focused on naturalistic behaviour with tests on the public roads of Rome (IT) and Burgos (ES), followed by individual tests in the simulators.
The second cycle was performed on a test track in Cracow (PL), with an additional set of sensors not allowed on public roads. For the simulator system, an exact copy of the test track was created as virtual environment and exactly the same exercises were performed: this allowed for a precise comparison for bias assessment.
Behavioural rules resulting from these two cycles were introduced in the actor agents steering the simulated traffic in the simulator system. The multi-user simulator system was developed in parallel focussing on performance, flexibility and managing the complex data collection.
The third cycle was a first use case of the simulator system with multi-user functionality and advanced actor agents, focused on altered conditions in five different locations in Sweden, UK, France, Italy and Spain. The altered conditions included drug use, medication use and emotional state. The Covid-19 pandemic hindered execution of data analysis within the project, however, collected data has been uploaded to Open Access repository Zenodo. Thus not only the consortium partners but the entire research community can find, use, process and analyse these data.
The Ethics Committee safeguarded the privacy and safety of the participating volunteers. All shared data has been fully anonymised.
The study on standardisation and new training models comprised a broad study of novice driver training and driving instructor training in more than twenty European countries. It showed a very disperse landscape on regulations with still limited interest in simulator use. As example of resulting recommendations: the study identifies specific training where simulators can be useful (e.g. at night, bad weather, ADAS use, eco driving).
Initial steps towards safety devices for car and motorcycle were made. The most advanced one is an alcohol sensor that can be integrated in a motor helmet. A patent has been applied for by SME Hök instruments, who joined with larger company Senseair during the project. R&i performing SME Link Innova has ongoing with companies regarding data collection using simulators and sensor integration in helmets.
The series of workshops covering different aspects of the project’s research, reached many stakeholders from all over the world and from different sectors (industry, public administrations, academic).
