CAVTest: A Closed Connected and Automated Vehicles Test Field of Chang’an University in China

Closed field testing of Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAV) is an essential pillar for verifying the functionality and performance of CAV and promoting its large-scale deployment. Recently, many closed test fields in the world have been newly built or rebuilt for testing CAV such as M-City in USA and AstaZero in Sweden. However, few construction methods, standards, and specifications of closed test fields for testing CAV were reported with details. We propose the construction practice of the Closed Connected and Automated Vehicles Test Field (CAVTest) of Chang’an University in China. The CAVTest has a multilayer architecture, from down to the top, which consists of an application scenario layer, a perception and a physical communication layer, a network link layer, and a management service layer, respectively. The modularization design of CAVTest ensures the system compatibility with different functional equipments, the accuracy of the test record, the scientific nature of data analysis, and the supporting conditions for scenario reproduction and factor analysis. Besides, at least 22 types of autonomous vehicle test scenarios have been built in CAVTest, and a digital twin system has been established. Two case studies for testing CAV are carried out, which are the AEB test for pedestrians at signalized intersections and the vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication test under static and dynamic conditions, respectively. The results showed that CAVTest can fully conduct closed field tests for the safety and communication performance of CAV.