Intelligent Vehicle Simulation and Debugging Environment Based on Physics Engine

In order to improve the development efficiency of the embedded intelligent vehicle system and replace the inefficient traditional embedded system debugging method, a simulation and debugging environment is developed for intelligent vehicles which are able to detect black tracks on white routes and realize fast automatic driving. OpenGL graphics engine is integrated in this system, which constructs simulated routes and vehicles, performs the whole scene and displays objects on the screen. ODE physics engine is introduced to the environment for the simulation of rigid body dynamics, and makes vehicle drive and interact with other scene objects. Algorithm and other user defined functions are compiled into an algorithm library on the PC and can be debugged directly by the simulation environment, which eases the code transplant process. By using this environment, it will be more convenient to guarantee the stability and robustness of the software of intelligent vehicles. In the meantime, high performance software code can be produced for precise steer control and safe driving, and the intelligent vehicles are able to run stably on any provided course at a high speed. Test results show that the intelligent vehicle simulation and debugging environment could actually improve the development efficiency and speed up the development progress significantly.