CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, background of this study is described according to the title and project

preview. Problem statement of this project, objectives and scope are described clearly

1.1 Background

Self-driving cars are the vehicles that can be driven without or with only slight

participation of the driver. These vehicles use sensors and navigation systems to avoid

obstacles and move with a certain speed without accidents. They can analyze the changing

conditions on the road, to predict future conditions and drive with low risk of an accident.

These vehicles are also called autonomous because they do not require the presence of the

driver.

The autonomous car has the potential to reduce risky and dangerous driver behaviors

that can lead to an accident which are unbelted vehicle occupants, speeding and

distraction. Next, the drivers could do more productive or entertaining activities, such as

reading, socializing with friends or family, and watching movies to fill their journey time

(Sivak, Micheal, Schoettle, 2015).

However, drivers tend to feel discomfort and will experience motion sickness while

doing the activity. This could lead to symptoms such as dizziness, nausea, sweating,

headaches, drowsiness, stomach awareness and vomiting due to disturbance of their sense

of balance by motion in the car. This is because they will focus on doing the activity and
automatically their awareness of the surroundings will decrease. They can’t predict the

change of direction, acceleration, deceleration as well as rotation and vibration of the car.

It might be a conflict between the visual system and the vestibular system where the

information they feel is different on the information they see (Md Yusof et al., 2017). A

mismatch between the inputs of the sensory organ is supposedly interpreted as meeting the

requirements for beginning this physiological reaction (Bloch, 2018). This is called

sensory conflict theory.

This study will explore more about the involvement of situation awareness in motion

sickness and how they affect each other. We also study methods on how to increase

situation awareness when doing non-driving related tasks. The device is developed using a

haptic feedback system by sending a piece of information to the driver before changing in

direction to increase driver awareness to the surrounding so that they can predict the

changing condition in the car as well as reduce the motion sickness

1.2 Problem statement

Autonomous vehicle technology is set to become the biggest evolution in the

autonomous industry. Companies like Tesla, Mercedes, Uber and Google are

experimenting with the relatively new concept to develop a self-driving car and be the first

to profit from the emerging technology. It enables the driver to do task such as reading,

watching movies, working and more. However, these non-driving related tasks usually

will require passengers’ focus off the road and situation awareness about the surrounding

will decreasing. This can lead to the conflict in the sensory organ, which is a conflict

between vestibular and visual sensors. This conflict occurs when the information from

what we see (visual) is different from what we feel (vestibular). The mismatch between

this information might give and effect which is motion sickness when riding in an
autonomous vehicle. Motion sickness can lead to discomfort and many other symptoms.

So, the driver can’t enjoy the activities while in the autonomous vehicle.

1.3 Objectives

The aim of this project is to design and development of Haptic Information System in

Automated Driving Vehicle to mitigate Motion Sickness. The aim is achieved through

these objectives:

 To understand the relationship between situation awareness and motion sickness

(sensory conflict theory) in a moving vehicle.

 To design an information system about upcoming vehicles’ manoeuvres.

 To develop the information system.
 To analyse the effectiveness of the information system on the real-road condition.

1.4 Scope

In order to make sure the project will be achieved as the objectives stated, which is

to design and development of Haptic Information System in Automated Driving Vehicle

to mitigate Motion Sickness, thus the scope of the study was proposed to make sure that

the project flow will be easy, regular and well organized. This project focuses on the

invention of haptic feedback device starting with the design product, circuit design, and

fabrication process. The design will be designed by using CAD software and the system

will be programmed by using Arduino. Moreover, it will focus based on product design

development. At the end of the development process, testing will be carried out at real

road to make sure the device is functionable or not. Lastly, the data is collected based on

the feedback of the respondents.

1.5 General Methodology

In order to achieved the objective of the study, general methodology of this project will be

presented. The flowchart of the process of this project is also shown in this section.

1. PSM title confirmation

- PSM title confirmation from the supervisor and briefing the basic idea about the

project

2. Problem definition

- Problem definition is obtained in order to get the better solution and strategy to

migitate motion sickness.

3. Literature review

- Collecting data and theoretical knowledge about the study from journals, websites,

and any related articles to get the detailed knowledge and more understanding about

the project

4. Design concept

- Proposed the design to the supervisor to select the better design. Benchmarking and

morphological chart is used to select the design that satisfy the requirement. If the

design concept not satisfy the requirement, the design is sketched again.

5. Detailed design

- Generate more detailed design to based on the selected concept. Use product

architecture to identify the best mechanism, suitable dimension, materials, and the

function.
6. Fabrication

- Fabricate the project based on the detailed design. If the project does not meet the

requirement of the study, the improvement processes is made to the project so that the

project will functioning.

7. Experiment

- Experimental process of this project will be conducted at real road to test the motion

sickness susceptible.

8. Experiment feedback and data collection.

- The data from the respondents are collected based on the survey.

9. Discussion and limitation

- The discussion is made by analysing the data from the previous section.

10. Report documentation

- All the data and information about this study for this study will be compiled in the

report at the end of this project.

1.6 Flowchart

Start PSM

PSM title Confirmation

Problem definition

Literature
review

No

Is the literature
review satisfy the
understanding ?
Phase 1 Yes

Concept Design
Generation

No

Does the design concept

meet the specification

Yes

Detailed Design

Fabrication

No

Does the product meet

the specification

Yes

Experiment

Phase 2
Experiment feedback
and data collection

Discussion and
limitation

Report documentation

End PSM