VATSIM: a simulator for vehicles and traffic

A vehicle and traffic simulator (VATSIM) has been developed for modeling automated vehicles with different sensors and controllers and traffic networks with real-time traffic control and route guidance. VATSIM simulates vehicle with movement, such as lane following, lane changing, vehicle following and intersection stopping, and is able to evaluate different controllers and sensors for vehicles. VATSIM represents traffic networks in detail such that it can also simulate different kinds of traffic flow movement and evaluate the effects of different traffic control methods and routing strategies. Implementation examples and analysis show that VATSIM can be used to evaluate different kinds of intelligent transportation system solutions.