Momentum - The Magazine for Virginia Tech Mechanical Engineering Vol. 2 No. 2 Summer 2017 | Page 12

to be investigated here in the lab before we can test them
using real vehicles."
In the ASIM lab, the robotic information is only half
the story. Behind a black curtain there is an actual car, a
simulator, that allows the team of engineering students
and faculty to access data that would be nearly impossible
to get otherwise. A SmartCar with a 180-degree projection
screen that can show a wide variety of roadway scenarios
provides the primary focus, while another desktop driving
station, allows the team to have two drivers interact within
the same digital roadway.
While simulators have long been used to study human
factors, having two stations working in the same virtual
scenario provides the team with a rich source of data on
the interaction of manual and autonomous drivers in the
same space.
MOMENTUM SUMMER'17
PAGE 12