An Interactive, physics-based unmanned ground vehicle simulator leveraging open source gaming technology: Progress in the development and application of the virtual autonomous navigation environment (VANE) desktop
Name
Rohde-2009-An Interactive, physics-based unmanned ground vehicle simulator .pdf
Size
1.57 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
a9569835ff0f1cc8420d2c70ac751f7e
Author(s)
Kewlani, Gaurav
Iagnemma, Karl
Horner, David A.
Jones, Randolph A.
Cummins, Christopher L.
Toschlog, Matthew
Crawford, Justin
Rohde, Mitchell M.
Date Issued
April 2009
Journal
Proceedings of SPIE
Publisher
SPIE
Citation
Rohde, Mitchell M. et al. “An interactive physics-based unmanned ground vehicle simulator leveraging open source gaming technology: progress in the development and application of the virtual autonomous navigation environment (VANE) desktop.” Unmanned Systems Technology XI. Ed. Grant R. Gerhart, Douglas W. Gage, & Charles M. Shoemaker. Orlando, FL, USA: SPIE, 2009. 73321C-13. © 2009 SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering
Version
Final published version
Abstract
It is widely recognized that simulation is pivotal to vehicle development, whether manned or unmanned. There are few dedicated choices, however, for those wishing to perform realistic, end-to-end simulations of unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs). The Virtual Autonomous Navigation Environment (VANE), under development by US Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), provides such capabilities but utilizes a High Performance Computing (HPC) Computational Testbed (CTB) and is not intended for on-line, real-time performance. A product of the VANE HPC research is a real-time desktop simulation application under development by the authors that provides a portal into the HPC environment as well as interaction with wider-scope semi-automated force simulations (e.g. OneSAF). This VANE desktop application, dubbed the Autonomous Navigation Virtual Environment Laboratory (ANVEL), enables analysis and testing of autonomous vehicle dynamics and terrain/obstacle interaction in real-time with the capability to interact within the HPC constructive geo-environmental CTB for high fidelity sensor evaluations. ANVEL leverages rigorous physics-based vehicle and vehicle-terrain interaction models in conjunction with high-quality, multimedia visualization techniques to form an intuitive, accurate engineering tool. The system provides an adaptable and customizable simulation platform that allows developers a controlled, repeatable testbed for advanced simulations. ANVEL leverages several key technologies not common to traditional engineering simulators, including techniques from the commercial video-game industry. These enable ANVEL to run on inexpensive commercial, off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware. In this paper, the authors describe key aspects of ANVEL and its development, as well as several initial applications of the system.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Laboratory for Manufacturing and Productivity
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
http://dx.doi.org/10.1117/12.820069
