What makes TruckSim a truly outstanding research and training tool is its ability to simulate a wide range of truck engines, transmissions, driving conditions and scenarios. It is a unique research laboratory that enables researchers to evaluate a driver's performance or determine their level of mental alertness in a safe environment. Data obtained from the Perclos camera and other sensors located in the simulator are processed with Carnegie Mellon's data reduction program. The simulator consists of an actual Freightliner truck cab sitting atop a sophisticated motion platform which duplicates the pitching, surging, heave and rolling movements a driver would feel when operating a real truck. The front of the cab is surrounded by three wrap-around screens on which the driver's field of vision is projected.
Smaller screens attached to the cab simulate the reflections in the rear view mirrors.
The virtual world of the driver can be altered by operators at a computer console. The operators can change road and weather conditions while the driver is at the wheel of the simulator. TruckSim can simulate different environmental conditions - rain, snow, ice, and even factor in the behavior of the vehicle on slippery pavements. The use of this leading edge technology creates an extremely accurate representation of what a driver experiences while operating a heavy vehicle. This has been confirmed by a number of truck drivers who were interviewed after completing a four hour simulation of their 12-hour shift on the simulator.