National Advanced Driving Simulator


The National Advanced Driving Simulator at the University of Iowa was the largest ground vehicle driving simulator in the world until November 2007, when Toyota's driving simulator at Higashifuji Technical Center was built.

History

The National Advanced Driving Simulator was developed from 1996 through 2001 by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to conduct human factors research on driver behavior.
The simulator consists of a dome with a vehicle cab inside. The vehicle is attached to a motorized turntable that allows the dome to rotate and simulate different driving conditions. 64 feet of longitudinal and lateral travel and 330 degrees of rotation are used to give motion cues to the driver inside. Different makes and models of car cabs can be utilized. The driving simulator was designed, developed and produced by MTS Systems Corporation of Eden Prairie, Minnesota.
The simulation runs using a software package called Real Time Recursive Dynamics, as well as NADSdyna submodules for specific vehicle specs.