Multi-Modal Distributed Simulation Combining Cars, Bicyclists, and Pedestrians

Joseph K. Kearney ¹, David A. Noyce ², Kelvin R. Santiago Chaparro ², Soumyajit Chakraborty ¹, Yuanyuan Jiang ^{3
1 University of Iowa, 2 University of Wisconsin - Madison, 3 California State University - San Marcos}

A collaborative project between the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Iowa was conducted to understand the feasibility of conducting driving and pedestrian simulator experiments that involve multiple agents (humans) in the simulation. As part of the collaborative project, a distributed driving simulation environment was created that can be used to conduct driving simulation experiments with multiple human agents participating in the simulation as a pedestrian or as a driver. The distributed simulation environment was created using the Unity game engine. A pedestrian can participate in the experiment using a virtual reality headset, while the driver can participate using a regular computer connected to a screen and a steering wheel control system. The distributed nature of the environment, ie, the ability to have subjects be part of the same experiment from geographically distant locations, is achieved by relying on the built-in networking functionality provided by the Unity game engine. As will be described in the report, the simulation environment was created by relying on the tools provided by the integrated development environment used by the Unity game engine and by creating supplemental modules created to support common tasks in driving simulation experiments.

Worked on connecting the pedestrian simulator at the HANK lab of the University of Iowa, with the driving simulator of the University of Wisconsin, Madison so that a pedestrian at the University of Iowa could interact with the driver at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and cross the road safely. Here is the link of the paper.