Abstract

For many years now, models for representing reality have played a decisive role in the development of control systems. By appropriate abstraction they help to design an efficient development process. Especially in the development of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) a valid virtual development environment is crucial for functionality and reliability. This study aims the representation of driving physics in a virtual test environment for the development of robust ADAS systems. The overall system consists of a georeferenced virtual traffic environment, a multibody vehicle model and a driver model. The virtual environment includes a detailed 3D model of an urban city in consideration of specific height coordinates of the environment. The vehicle model is implemented by a simplified two-lane model based on geometric steering correlations. Alternatively, the vehicle kinematics are considered by a five-body dynamic model. This model is combined by a semi-empirical tyre model for realistic modelling of the contact forces and torques between the tyre patch and the road. Finally, sensor models for radar, lidar and camera are added to the vehicle model. To investigate real urban traffic scenarios an advanced driver model is included, which uses a pure pursuit path tracking algorithm to follow a given target trajectory. To investigate real pedestrian interaction, a real persons behavior is included by motion capturing technologies. Those heterogeneous environments are combined by Co-Simulation to get a real-time connection and finally the entire testbed. By applying the Co-simulation environment to a typical inner city traffic scenario, the verification of the system functionality is done. The outcome is a safe and efficient virtual city environment, which enables interaction investigations between typical traffic participants and highly automated vehicles. In summary, the paper shows the high potential of virtual Co-simulation environments for progressing automated vehicle functionalities.