vEDGAR -- Can CARLA Do HiL?

TL;DR

This paper introduces vEDGAR, a framework that enables Hardware-in-the-Loop testing of automated driving software within the CARLA simulator, enhancing its utility for development and evaluation.

Contribution

The work develops and evaluates a new simulation framework, vEDGAR, that allows real-time testing of full sensor and actuation stacks in CARLA for automated vehicles.

Findings

vEDGAR successfully integrates full sensor and actuation stacks in CARLA.

The framework enables real-time Hardware-in-the-Loop testing.

CARLA can be used effectively for HiL testing with vEDGAR.

Abstract

Simulation offers advantages throughout the development process of automated driving functions, both in research and product development. Common open-source simulators like CARLA are extensively used in training, evaluation, and software-in-the-loop testing of new automated driving algorithms. However, the CARLA simulator lacks an evaluation where research and automated driving vehicles are simulated with their entire sensor and actuation stack in real time. The goal of this work is therefore to create a simulation framework for testing the automation software on its dedicated hardware and identifying its limits. Achieving this goal would greatly benefit the open-source development workflow of automated driving functions, designating CARLA as a consistent evaluation tool along the entire development process. To achieve this goal, in a first step, requirements are derived, and a simulation architecture is specified and implemented. Based on the formulated requirements, the proposed vEDGAR software is evaluated, resulting in a final conclusion on the applicability of CARLA for HiL testing of automated vehicles. The tool is available open source: Modified CARLA fork: https://github.com/TUMFTM/carla, vEDGAR Framework: https://github.com/TUMFTM/vEDGAR