TransCAVE-E: A distributed virtual reality testbed for adaptive external human-machine interfaces

Abstract

External human-machine interfaces (eHMIs) are evolving from predefined displays toward adaptive communication strategies that respond to changing traffic and road-user states. This transition requires experimental infrastructure that supports human-in-the-loop (HIL) interaction, software-in-the-loop (SIL) algorithm execution, reusable experiment orchestration, and synchronized multimodal human-factors evaluation. This paper presents TransCAVE-E, a distributed virtual-reality testbed for developing and validating adaptive and intelligent eHMIs. The platform integrates three coupled modules: a Scenario Design Center for configurable traffic environments and experimental conditions; an eHMI Algorithm Module for bidirectional real-time coupling between simulation and external algorithms; and a Data Management System that synchronizes trajectories, eye-tracking, physiological, system-log, and subjective data. A distributed multi-agent architecture supports synchronous interaction among pedestrians, human drivers, automated vehicles, and other traffic entities. Two use cases demonstrate the platform. In an AV-pedestrian experiment, an intent-recognition-based eHMI improved decision efficiency by 12.8% and 13.0% in yielding and non-yielding scenarios, reduced gaze distraction by 17.1% in the yielding scenario, and reduced unnecessary prompts by 40% in the non-yielding scenario while maintaining interaction safety. An HV-AV study further demonstrated real-time SIL validation of a game-theoretic information-disclosure strategy under active driver interaction. TransCAVE-E provides an extensible and reproducible infrastructure for closed-loop evaluation and iterative refinement of intelligent human-vehicle communication strategies.