VHCD - Virtual Human Centred Design

The "PSICo-SyHM" platform (for Plateforme de Simulation Intégrée du Conducteur et des Systèmes Homme-Machine), subsequently renamed "V-HCD" (for Virtual Human Centred Design), is a simulation platform designed to support a human-centred virtual design approach for future driver assistance and automation systems. The aim of this facility is to enable the specification, design and evaluation of future driver assistance systems and the way in which they interact with the human driver. The aim is to provide a tool for better understanding, via digital simulation, of the needs and expectations of future end users, right from the first stages of the technological design process (including from a simple assistance 'concept').

This platform can be used in two different but complementary ways:

• On the one hand, it can be seen as a driving simulator in which human drivers are invited to drive a vehicle equipped with virtual assistance systems (i.e. simulated using the Pro-SiVIC tool designed at LIVIC and marketed today by ESI Group / CIVITEC). At this level, we are more specifically interested in the way in which these future systems will (or will not) be integrated into drivers' driving activities, will (or will not) meet their actual needs, and will (or will not) contribute to improving road safety.
• On the other hand, a virtual vehicle (with or without simulated assistance systems) will be driven by the COSMODRIVE driver model (developed at LESCOT). At this level, the aim is, on the one hand ('COSMODRIVE Without Assistance' mode), to identify configurations of critical road scenarios for human drivers (situations for which assistance would be particularly useful) and, on the other hand ('COSMODRIVE With Assistance' mode), to evaluate virtually the expected benefits and/or the risks potentially induced by the introduction of these future driving assistance systems, once they have been developed and installed on the vehicle.

From both a practical and fundamental point of view, these two uses of PSICO-SYHM / V-HCD complement and enrich each other, since the simulations carried out with human drivers are used to feed the COSMODRIVE driver model and, in return, the simulations carried out with COSMODRIVE are used to progressively specify usage scenarios and the ergonomic functionalities of future driver assistance systems.

Following the work carried out in the HoliDes project (2013-2016), a partnership with ESI Group / CIVITEC has been set up to enable the industrial transfer of this simulation tool. This platform was presented on the ESI Group stand at CES in Las Vegas in 2017 and 2018. It is currently used by

A more detailed description of the V-HCD platform and its use in the virtual design of future driver assistance systems is available at the following link: Use of a cognitive simulation model of the driver to support the Virtual Human Centred Design (V-HCD) of ADAS and automated vehicles.

The team in charge of the platform has a technical blog, which explores its functionalities and details some aspects of its implementation.