Creating an OpenDRIVE Model of the Campus of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics for Automotive Simulations

The development of automotive technologies requires quite a significant amount of time and money. To accelerate this procedure, the technology of now is strongly based on computer simulations, where the whole vehicle or its parts can be analyzed in a virtual environment. The behavior of cars, especially equipped with new sensors or assistants, requires long testing, where the automotive simulators can play a cardinal role. The precise vehicular tests request accurate environmental models. These new kinds of models are still standardized; one of the pioneer de facto standards is OpenDRIVE. This standard was initially defined to be able to express all elements with all potential parameters required in high precision simulations. The actual research focused on creating a compliant virtual model based on mobile mapping measurements. A Leica Pegasus Two mobile mapping system was applied to capture field data about the selected pilot area, which is the campus of Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME). The obtained Lidar point cloud was georeferenced; the merged point cloud is tailored to the driven trajectory, and then it has been evaluated manually. The acquired land use map is converted – similarly manually – into basic road geometry elements: straight lane and bended lane segments. These objects are finally compiled into an XML format, which is compliant with the OpenDRIVE standard. The achieved virtual model has been tested in Driving Scenario Designer of Mathworks Matlab; however, it is promptly ready for use in other widely applied automotive simulators

Comparison of Complex Traffic Junction Descriptions in Automotive Standard Formats

Autonomous and highly automated transportation is very attractive not only for the automotive but also for the mapping industry. In order to exploit the technology, the latest survey solutions are needed, but beyond that, a clear description of the content is a must. Three standards have been selected: (1) used for a long time in navigation systems (NDS), (2) developed for simulation purposes (OpenDRIVE), and (3) designed and proposed for general map data exchange (GDF). In this paper, we present the approach of the three standards, then apply the tools of the standards to a specific sample area, a complex traffic junction, and produce maps in the appropriate formats. The evaluation of the pilot site shows that the difficulty of the exchange standard appears to be a serious obstacle. In the process of applying the navigation standard, the personality of the evaluator (the map maker) is also revealed. In the simulation format, the description of reality is gradually improved by including more and more extra elements

The Role of Maps in Autonomous Driving Simulations

The vehicles of the conditional, high, and full automation levels have a common unique sensor, the map. The term map has undergone a significant change because the spatial resolution has been increased considerably, the road infrastructure and its neighborhood are represented with higher accuracy in 3D. The development of these vehicles requires enormous efforts, where computer-based techniques, like the simulations, can offer a helping hand. The autonomous simulations will be supported by high-quality map information, which generates interest in the best field data-capturing techniques. The paper provides an overview of the available modern surveying methodologies, then introduces the most preferred data formats – both in physical information storage and in exchanging information content between mapping systems. Some examples are presented to demonstrate the usage of the relevant map-making outputs in automotive simulators

New method of transport measurements on van der Waals heterostructures under pressure

The interlayer coupling, which has a strong influence on the properties of van der Waals heterostructures, strongly depends on the interlayer distance. Although considerable theoretical interest has been demonstrated, experiments exploiting a variable interlayer coupling on nanocircuits are scarce due to the experimental difficulties. Here, we demonstrate a novel method to tune the interlayer coupling using hydrostatic pressure by incorporating van der Waals heterostructure based nanocircuits in piston-cylinder hydrostatic pressure cells with a dedicated sample holder design. This technique opens the way to conduct transport measurements on nanodevices under pressure using up to 12 contacts without constraints on the sample at the fabrication level. Using transport measurements, we demonstrate that a hexagonal boron nitride capping layer provides a good protection of van der Waals heterostructures from the influence of the pressure medium, and we show experimental evidence of the influence of pressure on the interlayer coupling using weak localization measurements on a transitional metal dichalcogenide/graphene heterostructure