The Use and Benefits of Modeling and Simulation with Autonomous Vehicles

Traditional live testing of autonomous ground vehicles can be augmented through use of digital twins of the test environment, the vehicle mobility models, and the vehicle sensors. These digital twins combined with the autonomous software under test allow testers to inject faults, weather, obstacles, find edge case scenarios, and collect information to understand the decision making of the autonomous software under test. With this new capability, autonomous ground vehicles can now be tested in four stages. The first stage is testing the autonomous software using digital twins. In this stage with the help of a High-Performance Computer thousands of scenarios can be run. Once issues are communicated and addressed, stage two, hardware in the loop testing can begin. Hardware in the loop uses simulators that already exist to test systems such as autonomous convoys with a virtual leader and a live follower. Stage three employs a live virtual constructive approach by using one vehicle to test a convoy on the live track. Stage four allows traditional live testing to occur but with the help of a hardware and software applique kit to prevent the autonomous software from doing anything unsafe on the test track.