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Context:

Simulation for Autonomous Vehicle

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Issue:

Representativeness and productivity to replicate AV testing in virtual environment

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Project objectives:

•Complete the simulation platform with new tools able to quickly recreate real driving test in virtual simulation – based on standards

•Recreate environment and dynamics scenario

•Simulate all sensors in this virtual environment

•Massive simulation

•Strategic cooperation between partners

The REPLICA project aims to complement existing simulation platforms with new bricks in order to bridge the gap expected in autonomous vehicle testing.

The intelligent and autonomous vehicle is a major challenge for car manufacturers and crucial for the global competitiveness of the French automotive industry.

The progressive introduction on the market of autonomous driving functions has been defined at the global level according to 6 levels of autonomy (0 to 5). Autonomous level 3 and 4 vehicles should become widespread on the roads by 2021-2025.

For the validation of autonomous driving algorithms and ADAS (driving assistance) systems, conventional methods of driving with prototypes, whether on tracks or open roads, will reach costs and durations unimaginable for industrialists. Therefore, 99% of the tests will have to be carried out in simulated virtual environments. This represents several hundred million kilometres of virtual driving to be carried out digitally.

Current simulation tools suffer from 2 major limitations. On the one hand, the virtual representativeness of the road, traffic and sensors of the autonomous vehicle, and on the other hand, the productivity of the test scenarios. The REPLICA project will make it possible to supplement the existing simulation platforms with new bricks that will allow these massive simulations with sufficient efficiency in terms of coverage of usage conditions or detection of critical situations.

The tools that will be developed in the Replica project will enable industrialists to rapidly cover millions of km of virtual driving, with great variability in driving conditions and parameters, by accelerating or parallelizing the calculations.

The platform equipped with these new tools will allow : – Based on the recognition and reconstruction of real data, generate static environments (roads), dynamic scenarios and traffic representative of real driving – Develop test plans and driving scenarios including sensor models – Enable the integration of variability in digital tests and thus increase the number of test cases – Provide the ability to integrate variability in digital tests and thus increase the number of test cases.

The project consortium is based on a balance between suppliers of modelling and simulation tools (ANSYS, AVSimulation , ALL4TEC, Terra3D) an academic (Armines), a Technological Research Institute (IRT SystemX) and users (RENAULT and Groupe PSA). This consortium is the guarantor of the relevance of the solution developed in terms of its suitability to the needs of industrial users and its ability to address the world market for autonomous vehicle simulation.

Finally, the REPLICA project is consistent with past projects and is a major piece of the puzzle of NFI/PFA “autonomous vehicle” projects by providing an answer on simulation software tools. The links with the projects of the IRT SystemX and the VEDECOM institute are clearly established.

Apart from industrial users, who will be the first beneficiaries of REPLICA’s results, 47 jobs will be created or maintained.

The REPLICA project responds to the blocking problem of validation of the autonomous vehicle. The project is positioned as a coherent response by French players on the world market for simulation tools for the validation of the autonomous vehicle and ANSYS is a credible carrier of the offer through its worldwide sales network addressing the automotive market.