The automotive industry is rapidly evolving with technologies such as vehicle electrification, autonomous driving, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), and active suspension systems. Testing and validating these technologies under India’s diverse and complex road conditions is a major challenge. Physical testing alone is often impractical due to variability in road surfaces, traffic patterns, and environmental conditions, as well as safety constraints. Virtual testing using high-fidelity digital twins of road corridors offers an effective solution for replicating real-world conditions in a controlled environment.
This paper highlights the representation of Indian road corridors as digital twins in ASAM OpenDRIVE and OpenCRG formats, emphasizing the critical elements required for realistic simulation of vehicle, tire, and ADAS performance. The digital twin incorporates detailed 3D road profiles (X-Y-Z coordinates), capturing the geometry and surface variations of Indian roads. The process of generating the digital twin of road corridor involves mapping road corridors using high-density and high-precision LiDAR scanning, DGPS, and camera sensors. A framework along with mathematical algorithms is developed and tuned specifically for extracting Indian road corridor elements, enabling the creation of accurate and detailed digital representations of roads and associated infrastructure.
Proposed digital twin framework provides a robust foundation for evaluating vehicle and tire performance by capturing the unique characteristics of Indian roads and corridors diverse surface types, complex urban layouts along with varying infrastructure elements. It supports accelerated development cycles, improved safety, and optimized comfort, offering automotive OEMs and suppliers a reliable virtual platform for testing and validating next-generation vehicles tailored to Indian driving conditions.