Simulation Framework for Development and Testing of Autonomous Vehicles

The benefits of Autonomous Driving (AD) and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) include providing critical capabilities that would help to reduce accidents due to driver errors, improve safety in traffic, and enhance driving efficiency. The goal of this paper is to utilize the Robot Operating System (ROS) and Gazebo 3D simulator for realizing a fully immersive software-in-the-loop (SIL) simulation framework, which could be utilized for the virtual design, verification, and validation of AD/ADAS features. It supports designing and implementing a software platform and methodology to validate different features for AD/ADAS with a high degree of realism. The paper will also discuss the configuration of the sensors, such as the camera, LiDAR, and RADAR, that are later used as part of a sensor fusion technique that shows the usability of the developed environment.