Vehicle in Virtual Environment (VVE) Method

TL;DR

The paper introduces the Vehicle in Virtual Environment (VVE) method, integrating real vehicles with virtual worlds for safe, efficient testing of autonomous vehicle algorithms using sensor data transfer and virtual environment simulation.

Contribution

It presents a novel VVE approach that combines real vehicles with virtual environments, enhancing testing safety and flexibility over traditional methods.

Findings

VVE enables real-time vehicle movement in virtual environments.

The method improves safety and logistics in autonomous vehicle testing.

A case study demonstrates effective testing of a radar-based stopping algorithm.

Abstract

Autonomous vehicle (AV) algorithms need to be tested extensively in order to make sure the vehicle and the passengers will be safe while using it after the implementation. Testing these algorithms in real world create another important safety critical point. Real world testing is also subjected to limitations such as logistic limitations to carry or drive the vehicle to a certain location. For this purpose, hardware in the loop (HIL) simulations as well as virtual environments such as CARLA and LG SVL are used widely. This paper discusses a method that combines the real vehicle with the virtual world, called vehicle in virtual environment (VVE). This method projects the vehicle location and heading into a virtual world for desired testing, and transfers back the information from sensors in the virtual world to the vehicle. As a result, while vehicle is moving in the real world, it simultaneously moves in the virtual world and obtains the situational awareness via multiple virtual sensors. This would allow testing in a safe environment with the real vehicle while providing some additional benefits on vehicle dynamics fidelity, logistics limitations and passenger experience testing. The paper also demonstrates an example case study where path following and the virtual sensors are utilized to test a radar based stopping algorithm.