Sensor and data fusion design and evaluation with a virtual environment simulator

A virtual environment simulation is described, which is useful for the evaluation and testing of on-vehicle ITS sensors and control suites. It is capable of 3D environment simulation and scene generation for use as input to image processing systems, the simulation of complex six degree of freedom (X, Y, Z, roll, pitch, yaw) vehicle models, the generation of ground truth and simulated sensor outputs (i.e., inertial sensors, GPS, vehicle speed), and closed loop testing. The simulator can accept road geometry and terrain data as derived from GIS databases. It is implemented as a modular and extensible software simulation environment using distributed, multiprocessing, networked software modules. Use of the simulator is illustrated by the parameter optimization and evaluation of a sensor fusion algorithm involving GPS, inertial sensors, and a map database.