ACT Lab
Georgia Tech’s ACT Lab, directed by Dr. Srinivas Peeta, addresses problems broadly in transportation and infrastructure systems. A primary focus of the lab is on exploring roles of the emerging autonomous and connected technologies in terms of the interactions among the vehicle, human and infrastructure, and consequent impacts on society. This is done using analytical modeling, computer simulation, driving simulator environments, virtual reality and augmented reality environments, and real-world test beds.
Driving Simulator Facility
The ACT Lab has a new state-of-the-art driving simulator facility that focuses on research related to autonomous and connected transportation systems. It consists of a RDS-2000 Full Cab Driving Simulator that is integrated in real-time with a microscopic traffic flow simulator enabled using Dr. Peeta’s research teams’ capabilities to provide a unique, real-time network-level traffic environment. Further, an advanced networked simulator environment is enabled by integrating two RDS-100 Desktop Driving Simulators with the full cab simulator to provide the ability for three participants to interact in the same traffic environment. By integrating multiple physiological sensors (EEG, ECG, Eye Tracking & Facial Recognition), the driving simulator facility has capabilities to observe human behavior/response and understand human factors in diverse real-world environments. The facility can consider multiple vehicular environments, including human-driven vehicles, connected vehicles, connected autonomous vehicles, electric vehicles and mixed traffic flows. It can also incorporate multiple passenger travel modes including walking, bicycling, personal auto, transit (buses, rail, etc.), ride-sharing and ride-hailing to enable multimodal trips. Further, it can incorporate multiple freight travel modes in the same environment. The driving simulator facility can simulate realistic driving environments in terms of road design characteristics, pavement characteristics, weather conditions, technological infrastructure, etc.