Traffic generation with the SCANeR II simulator
Résumé
Renault has been developing driving simulators for over 10 years. They are used for ergonomics andadvanced engineering studies at Renault as well as for road traffic research, human factor studies anddriver training in different labs and companies in Europe (especially in France, the UK, Sweden andNorway). These simulators use SGI and/or PC image generation technology with up to 6 graphicschannels and motion seat or platforms for kinaesthetic rendering. The real time simulation software,SCANeR© II version 1.3, currently includes -among others- simulation session initialisation andmonitoring, vehicle dynamics, traffic generation, visual and kinaesthetic modules.The traffic generation software allows the user (i.e. the experimenter) to describe and initiate real timetraffic with autonomous vehicles. Up to several hundred vehicles can be rendered using a trafficmanagement system and several state machines standing for the different vehicles. The SCANeR© IIsoftware has already been used in experimentation needing comprehensive scenarios or designed trafficsituations.One problem of the traditional approach is that some critical and/or complex situations are difficult tosimulate. Such situations mainly occur when several vehicles want to have access to the same roadand/or when the number of involved vehicles is important. Yet, for many years now, researches mainlyconducted in distributed artificial intelligence have allowed to study systems characterised by intelligentautonomous entities. These entities, or agents, must be able to coordinate their actions in order to reachtheir goals. Such systems are named multi-agent systems.Our work consists in modelling a road traffic as a multi-agent system and in studying the contribution ofthis approach. Vehicles have to cooperate and coordinate their actions in order to achieve their aims (toreach and to drive on roads) while avoiding endangering each other (accident risk).In a driving simulator, autonomous vehicles must interact with each other and human beings(interactively driven vehicles). They constitute a traffic by anticipating, adapting and trying not tohinder one another. They must be able to communicate (via indicators, brake light, hazard lights,horn…) and cooperate (help each other) to behave in a coordinated way (to keep the traffic moving).