Virtual scenario simulation and modeling framework in autonomous driving simulators

Abstract

Recently, virtual environment-based techniques to train sensor-based autonomous driving models have been widely employed due to their efficiency. However, a simulated virtual environment is required to be highly similar to its real-world counterpart to ensure the applicability of such models to actual autonomous vehicles. Though advances in hardware and three-dimensional graphics engine technology have enabled the creation of realistic virtual driving environments, the myriad of scenarios occurring in the real world can only be simulated up to a limited extent. In this study, a scenario simulation and modeling framework that simulates the behavior of objects that may be encountered while driving is proposed to address this problem. This framework maximizes the number of scenarios, their types, and the driving experience in a virtual environment. Further-more, a simulator was implemented and employed to evaluate the performance of the proposed framework.