MonoSIM: An open source SIL framework for Ackermann Vehicular Systems with Monocular Vision

TL;DR

MonoSIM is an open-source SIL platform tailored for autonomous Ackermann vehicles, emphasizing simplicity and monocular vision, enabling easy algorithm testing, validation, and educational use with minimal computational demands.

Contribution

The paper introduces MonoSIM, a lightweight, open-source SIL framework for Ackermann vehicles with monocular vision, facilitating research and education with flexible control strategy testing.

Findings

Validated with MPC and PID algorithms.

Provides reliable environment for algorithm verification.

Supports low-cost AGV development and multi-agent research.

Abstract

This paper presents an open-source Software-in-the-Loop (SIL) simulation platform designed for autonomous Ackerman vehicle research and education. The proposed framework focuses on simplicity, while making it easy to work with small-scale experimental setups, such as the XTENTH-CAR platform. The system was designed using open source tools, creating an environment with a monocular camera vision system to capture stimuli from it with minimal computational overhead through a sliding window based lane detection method. The platform supports a flexible algorithm testing and validation environment, allowing researchers to implement and compare various control strategies within an easy-to-use virtual environment. To validate the working of the platform, Model Predictive Control (MPC) and Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) algorithms were implemented within the SIL framework. The results confirm that the platform provides a reliable environment for algorithm verification, making it an ideal tool for future multi-agent system research, educational purposes, and low-cost AGV development. Our code is available at https://github.com/shantanu404/monosim.git.