|
|
|
|
Appendix Three — Proposal from NADS on SimulatorJuly 3, 2006 Donie Cassidy T.D. Chairman Joint Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise and Small Business Dáil Éireann Leinster House Dublin 2, Ireland Dear Chairman and Members of the Joint Committee: It was truly a pleasure and an honor to host you at the University of Iowa National Advanced Driving Simulator. We appreciate the time that you the members of the Joint Committee have granted us. We stand ready and able to offer our expertise in supporting Ireland’s goals of increasing driving safety, reducing insurance costs, and enhancing driver safety training in schools. The National Advanced Driving Simulator is a not-for-profit organization focused on advanced driving research and technologies. Proposal Attached herewith, please find a proposal for the deployment of the NADS SAFETY™ MiniSim, which is an advanced safety driving simulator. The at-cost proposal provides a comprehensive solution to embedding simulators in schools in Ireland. The proposal also addresses Irish-specific scenarios, Irish specific visual environments, and training and assessment modules. Pilot Program Also attached please find a description of a pilot program as requested involving the deployment of five simulators. NADS Event Data (NED™) Recorder A third proposal is attached that describes the NED™ event data recorder which is a robust system for tracking driving, used to evaluate driving safety and performance. We are committed to a very high level of support and maintenance in Ireland. I look forward to hearing from you and please let me know if any further documentation is needed to evaluate our technologies. Thank you, Karim A. Malek, PhD Director, National Advanced Driving Simulator Professor, Biomedical and Mechanical Engineering Enclosures(3) The National Advanced Driving Simulator The University of Iowa 2401 Oakdale Blvd. Iowa City, IA 52242-5003 contacts@nads-sc.uiowa.edu Tel: (319)335-4646 Fax: (319)335-4658 NADS SAFETY™ Driving Simulator NADS NED™ Recorder THE NADS SAFETYTM: A REALISTIC DRIVING SIMULATOR FOR DRIVER SAFETY What is SAFETY™? The NADS SAFety Educator and Trainer for Youth (SAFETY) is a high-performance driving simulator focused on addressing road safety concerns, particularly for novice drivers, through training in simulated safety critical situations. It is a real-time simulator providing the trainee with a safe environment for learning and practicing safe driving in a variety of diverse situations. Benefits of SAFETY™ Simulator based training allows student drivers to experience dangerous driving situations from the safety of a controlled learning environment. Students are able to learn from repeated exposure to these situations in order to better respond when similar situations are encountered on the road. Research has shown that driver training simulators are effective at reducing both the severity and number of crashes. One Texas county experienced a 55% reduction in auto liability claims following implementation of simulator training1. In the Coachella Valley area in California, an 88% decrease in auto negligence claims was observed following deployment of mobile driver training units2. Through use of NADS SAFETY™, young drivers will be better able to safely respond to dangerous situations on the road and lead to fewer crashes and fatalities. The NADS SAFETY™ provides numerous benefits for training novice drivers in Ireland including: • Scenarios customized for Irish rules of the road • Graphics that are typical of Irish road networks; i.e., road configurations, road markings, intersections, signage, and geographical surrounds representative of those in Ireland • Flexibility to expand scenarios to fulfill future training objectives • Cost Effective Training • Modest space requirements for ease of transport and installation in mobile units • Level of simulation fidelity appropriate for novice trainees 1 c.f. Hoff, P., “Simulator based training to reduce costs”, 2002, http://www.faac.com/pdfs/tacstats.pdf. 2 c.f. Ellerbrock, S., “Coachella Valley Joint Powers Insurance Authority”, 1999, http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/outreach/safedige/Spring99/sp9928.htm. What does SAFETY™ consist of? The SAFETY™ simulator consists of the following components: • Core simulation software (NADS proven technology) • Three high resolution plasma displays • Pedals, steering, and shifter controls • Two computers (simulation and image generator CPUs) • Audio: surround sound for a realistic immersive driving • Virtual instrumentation (advanced software) Realistic Graphics and Scenarios The most important issue for a novice driver is to learn and practice safe driving techniques by engaging with realistic hazardous driving conditions likely to occur in the real world within a safe environment. SAFETY™ provides advanced realistic graphics and scenarios tailored for training. Visual graphics (roads, markings, driving on the left, vehicles and appropriate signage are all replicated in the SAFETY™ simulator) A number of standard scenarios are created to enable the student to learn, practice and be evaluated on hazardous driving including: • Imminent Braking • Cut-ins • Intersections • Gap Acceptance • Merging • Lane Changes • Loss of Control Uniqueness The University of Iowa National Advanced Driving Simulator is uniquely positioned to develop and deploy advanced driving simulation technologies to the country of Ireland. With unparalleled experience in creating and distributing new simulators and simulation technologies, NADS is ready to forge a solid partnership with the government of Ireland. Maintenance, Support, and Upgrades NADS is committed to providing the highest level of maintenance and support on location in Ireland. Well trained professionals will be available for telephone, network-based and on-location as requested to service and support all SAFETY™ software and hardware components. PROPOSAL FOR AT-COST PARTNERSHIP THE NADS SAFETYTM MINISIM NADS proposes an at-cost partnership with the Irish Safety Council to help provide safety training to youth in Ireland using the NADS SAFETY™ MiniSim. The pricing schedule below details the costs for the simulator in different quantities: MiniSim Hardware & Core Software Number of Simulators Cost per Simulator 5 — 19 40,000 USD 20 — 39 38,000 USD 40 — 59 35,000 USD 60 — 99 31,000 USD 100 or more 26,000 USD Essential Software Components Development Cost Suite of 21 scenarios 198,000 USD Irish geo-typical visual environment 232,000 USD Assessment and training modules 255,000 USD Scenarios A library of 21 scenarios specifically designed to teach safe driving to novice teen drivers in Ireland. A typical scenario will consist of a 2-5 minute drive designed to target a specific safety issue. Geo-typical Visual Environment The SAFETYTM simulation environment will consist of a 3 square kilometer visual environment that has been designed to represent the look and feel of Ireland. The visual environment features urban, residential and highway driving areas with connecting transition roads. Roads feature Irish markings, signs and lights. Training Modules These modules will allow drivers to train themselves on using a driving simulator. Student progress can be tracked using a database that will come bundled with the software. Assessment Modules These modules will allow the instructor to assess student driver performance. This information will be calculated instantaneously and presented in an easy to use format for the instructor. Performance can be saved in a database to track student progress over the course of time Additional costs Description Cost Shipping and handling — will be assessed at taxes, tariffs, customs Per agreement (Optional) Maintenance and Support - software upgrades, on-site technical support, 24-hour customer service, spare parts 20% of invoice (Optional) additional scenarios can be designed per customer specification Per specification (Optional) additional visual environments that are either geo-typical or geo-specific Per specification PROPOSAL FOR PILOT PROGRAM THE NADS SAFETYTM MINISIM NADS recognizes the desire of the Irish Committee to pursue a pilot program. Given the small number of simulators, NADS proposes to keep the costs low by providing a limited set of features as follows: • 5 NADS SafetyTM driving simulators • An American visual environment slightly modified to enable left-handed driving with appropriate road markings, signs and lights. • 5 basic driving scenarios. • A simplified assessment module. Total Cost The proposed cost for this setup is 295,000 USD. THE NADS NEDTM: EVENT DATA RECORDER What is NED™? The NED™ (Nads Event Data) Recorder is a reconfigurable vehicle data recorder that alerts a driver of unsafe driving maneuvers and records the various measures for later evaluation of driver safety and performance. The NED™ can be configured as a high-speed event-triggered data recorder to capture only events that cross a predetermined threshold or can be configured to record continuous data for an entire drive at a more modest recording rate. The design of the NED™ is the result of years of experience with recording vehicle-related data by engineers at the National Advanced Driving Simulator. Standard features of NED™ • High-speed 3-axis acceleration measurements that measure aggressive acceleration, braking, turning, and road roughness profiles • In event-triggered mode, the NED™ records ±10 seconds centered on the trigger, which can be any combination of available data inputs, each with adjustable thresholds • Data is recorded onto a high-capacity memory card and data is retrieved simply by removing the storage card from the NED™ and placing it into a PC card reader or directly connecting a laptop to the NED™ • Audio alert tone that can be enabled to notify the driver of unsafe maneuvers • Vehicle diagnostics port interface to record vehicle diagnostic messages, gas pedal position, vehicle speed, engine RPM, etc. • Digital inputs are available for sensing seat belts, turn signals, etc. • Basic data review software interface What options can be considered? • GPS receiver for spatial data which can be overlaid onto maps of Irish roadways • Advanced analysis of drive to user specification • Chemical and analog sensors (i.e. alcohol or carbon monoxide) • 802.11x wireless interface for data retrieval • Cellular interface for remote monitoring • Angular rate sensors (gyros) for pitch/roll/yaw • Cell phone signal detector • Video recording PROPOSAL: THE NADS NED™ NADS recognizes the desire of the Irish Committee’s interest in incorporating black box technology into vehicles. Given the small number of simulators, NADS proposes to keep the costs low by providing a limited set of features as follows: NED™ Hardware & Core Software Number of Units Cost per Unit 10 — 99 300 USD 100 — 999 275 USD 1000 or more 230 USD Additional costs Description Cost Shipping and handling — will be assessed at taxes, tariffs, customs Per agreement (Optional) additional features Per specification |
||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
