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Step into the car and start the simulator. |
In Heureka’s Driving simulator you are driving on the Tampere western ring road. The traffic in the simulator is equivalent to the amounts of traffic in real-life. Also, road conditions and the performance of your car resemble reality. Be careful not to bump into anything and don’t drive into a ditch – your ride will end there!
In the near future, the instruction and warning services provided by the simulator will become more and more frequent also in Finland. In order to use such services, the vehicle must be equipped with a navigator that can keep track of the location of the car. Also, in the future, the location information will be transferred to a traffic control centre.
Co-operation partners:
Finnish Road Administration
Destia
Hewlett-Packard Oy
Real-time
traffic information services
Information is useful also on the road. The first step into the world of traffic information services has been taken by car navigators that are becoming more and more popular also in Finland. The main task of the navigator is to guide you to your destination. Another useful function, especially when the journey is long, is to show the remaining travel time. With the help of GPS-localisation, navigators indicate your accurate speed. Some navigators have even been programmed to warn you against speeding; all speed limits of the Finnish main road network have been saved in their data base.
The next step is to use the location information of the vehicle to search for real-time traffic information. This requires a wireless connection by means of for example a mobile phone in the car. Through the connection the location information is passed on to a service operator, who sends the driver real-time information and warnings.
Just as in Heureka’s Driving simulator the information can be about traffic jams, changes in road conditions or warnings about obstacles such as moose or accidents on the road. Real-time information about other means of transport can be linked with this service. The driver can for example be informed of changed time-tables in the destination’s train station.
A good question is how this real-time information should be gathered. Location and speed information can be sent from cars to the traffic information operator automatically. This method is called Floating Car Data (FCD). A picture of the flow of traffic in different areas can be built from this information. In another model, which is maybe a bit more complicated, probes are installed on the banks of roads. These probes measure the amount of traffic and its speed. The automatic measurement of traffic is a system already being used in Finland. The Finnish road network is large and it would be very expensive to cover it with this system. A third method that is already being used has to do with road users. They simply phone the operator and inform of different types of problems on the road such as accidents and traffic jams. Most probably all of these methods shall be used in the future to produce real-time services.
Katukanava – – the Street channel is a service maintained by the Finnish Road Enterprise. This service enables you to examine the information on dangerous spots or problems in roads or streets given by road users all over Finland. You can also leave your own message on the street channel (in Finnish).
VT 3 Tampere Western Ring Road
Main Road 3 from Helsinki via Tampere to Vaasa is one of the most important traffic routes in our country. The worst bottleneck of the road is the current ring road west of Tampere. There traffic gets jammed every day.
Construction of the Tampere western ring road began at the end of the year 2003.The construction project will upgrade the current road to motorway standard by constructing a second carriageway parallel to the existing road. The new carriageway will be situated to the north and east of the current road.
The first phase of the project consists of the construction of a motorway between Pirkkala and Kalkku. It is due to be finished during the year 2006. The second phase involves the construction of a carriageway beside the sections Lakalaiva–Pirkkala and Kalkku–Ylöjärvi. The new carriageway is altogether 14 km long.
The Tampere western ring road is due to be completely finished by 2008.
Tampereen läntinen kehätie – For more information go to the Finnish Road Administration web page.Simulator programme
The Driving simulator is based on Novapoint –technology, which is a professional planning programme. Most of the traffic routes in the Nordic countries have been planned with Novapoint. A three-dimensional virtual model is almost always created when planning traffic routes. This is a virtual simulation model of the VT3 Tampere Western Ring Road. The virtual model helps to examine the road three-dimensionally and from the road user’s perspective during planning. Thus it is possible to make sure that the plans are flawless and suitable to the environment. Virtual models are illustrative and therefore useful when new projects are presented to the public.
The realisation of a three-dimensional virtual model is as accurate as the planning information enables it to be. The geometry of a road, bridges and other constructions in the virtual model are placed in the exact spot where they shall be built. This is how a virtual model differs from computer games. The large panorama screen is another feature that distinguishes the virtual model. The driver has a much larger visual area in his/her use, which makes it easier to perceive speed and distance.
The realisation of the Driving simulator follows the laws of physics. The friction coefficient on different surfaces is real-like and the car performs in extreme conditions according to the laws of physics. With reckless driving it’s possible to drive the car into a slide and even turn it around on its roof. Other vehicles in the simulator follow traffic regulations and in case of collision the cars crash just as in real life. Rear-end collisions and pile-ups are possible as well. The simulator is realistic in its three-dimensional sound system and different weather effects.
Under the simulator’s bonnet you will find a PC
with two powerful OpenGL compatible 3d display adapters that
operate altogether three data projectors and one LCD screen. There
are four processors in the computer, central memories of 4Gt and in
both display adapters a 512Mt memory. This is equivalent to a
modern planning work station so the road planners can test their
road design on their own work desk.
PC
- Hewlett-Packard PC, Windows XP Professional operating
system
- 2 separate 64 bit processors of AMD Operon 200 series,
with 4Gt central memory
- 2 separate NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 display adapters
with 512 Mt of display memory
- 150 Gt RAID disk system
- Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic sound card
Virtual model
(3d)
-- over 600 000 polygons
- over 115 000 separate trees
- over 3200 buildings
_
over 180
Mt of different textures
Vianova Oy – developer of the simulator programme
Hewlett-Packard – manufacturer of the computer in which the simulator is running
Updated 8.1.2007/KT
