A technological road to the safe and digital evaluation of autonomous or automated vehicle performance in off-road settings has been paved by U.S. Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) scientists. The digital twin for vehicle testing represents a 3D software loop to enable assessment of situations and scenarios that would incur excessive costs under real-world conditions.

Developed with a 3D video game-style interface to test virtual ground vehicles on off-road terrain, the Simulation Scene Adjustment Tool incorporates a graphics engine, dynamics engine, vehicle modeling tools, vehicle terrain interaction models and plug-ins to communicate with an autonomy software stack. The system builds elevation maps based on geographic information system data and graphically depicts topographical features in 3D.

A virtual unmanned ground vehicle in a simulated 3D scene rendered from a real location based on geographical data. Source: SwRI

“If you look at field testing of automated vehicles, there are simply not enough miles or novel situations that you can throw at a vehicle to encounter all the edge cases for sensors and software,” said Jerry Towler, assistant director of SwRI’s robotics department. “Modeling and simulation help test automated vehicles and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) to enhance safety and ensure capability before and alongside deployment into real-world testing environments.”

SwRI is now using the simulator to support military and civilian client applications.