HSE Scientists Develop Simulation Environment for Connected and Automated Vehicles
A team of researchers and students led by Vitaly Stepanyants, Lecturer at the School of Computer Engineering of HSE MIEM, has developed a solution implemented at the Laboratory of Computer-Aided Design Systems of HSE MIEM, headed by Alexandr Romanov and Alexandr Amerikanov. For the first time worldwide, this system enables detailed simultaneous modelling of both environmental perception by automated vehicles and the propagation of connected transport signals. To date, there are no open-source programs comparable to the proposed environment.
Automated vehicle technologies, which allow the driver to be partially or fully replaced, are already being used on public roads. The next stage in their evolution is the development of connected transport systems that enable vehicles to exchange information with one another to ensure safe and efficient interaction on the road—even without relying on infrastructure designed for human drivers, such as traffic lights.
The project is being implemented under a grant from the Russian Science Foundation, 'Development of Models of Cooperative Perception and Cooperative Driving Automation Systems Using Connected and Automated Vehicle Technology.' The project lead is Aleksandr Americanov, Associate Professor and Leading Research Fellow at the HSE MIEM Laboratory for CAD Systems.
High-detail modeling tools already exist separately for connected and automated transportation technologies. However, integrating these two groups of technologies into a single computer-aided design system—one that enables researchers to study the impact of such vehicles on the macroscopic parameters of the transport system—remains a challenge for the world’s leading engineering schools.
CAVISE (Connected and Automated Vehicle Integrated Simulation Environment), developed by the research group of Vitaly Stepanyants, enables the integration of existing open-source simulators (CARLA, SUMO, OMNeT++) and frameworks (OpenCDA, Artery) by creating interfaces for two-way synchronised exchange of simulation data. For the first time worldwide, it allows detailed simultaneous simulation of both the environmental perception of automated vehicles and the signal propagation processes in connected transport systems.
The research group for connected vehicles is currently refining its CAVISE Application Programming Interface (CAPI), which enables the transfer of relevant information between simulators, as well as a user interface that simplifies the creation of automated vehicle movement scenarios. This interface allows users to place objects such as road users and infrastructure on an interactive 3D map, define vehicle characteristics and routes, and set weather conditions. As a result, the process of scenario creation becomes more intuitive and significantly less time-consuming.
Additionally, the researchers have developed a module that enables parallel simulation of multiple geographical scenes in CARLA.
Vitaly Stepanyants
'Our work will lead to experiments evaluating how current models of cooperative traffic management can enhance the safety and throughput of transportation systems compared to conventional automated vehicles,' says Vitaly Stepanyants. 'Previously, existing models of cooperative traffic management were tested only under ideal conditions without signal loss—assuming a perfect connection in which 100% of messages from all senders reach all recipients. In contrast, our model accounts for signal propagation in the presence of surrounding obstacles, thereby reflecting the possibility of partial or complete message loss in real-world conditions.'
The research group plans to develop several important tools: a cooperative perception model that accounts for potential losses and delays in signal transmission; a dataset for training cooperative perception models that reflects data loss during communication between road users; and a cooperative traffic management model created by refining existing models and adapting them to the CAVISE environment, thereby enabling consideration of both vehicular perception of the environment and data exchange losses.
Active recruitment for projects led by Vitaly Stepanyants’ group is currently underway. For more details, visit the MIEM HSE Telegram channel.
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