Terrain modeling on high-fidelity ground vehicle simulators

Distributed interactive simulation (DIS) involves a large number of geographically dispersed operator-in-the-loop simulators interacting in the same virtual environment. Recently, the ability of DIS is being expanded to evaluate equipment performance for the purpose of design modification and eventually, acquisition. This requires use of simulators that model the behavior of ground vehicles or other such equipment with enough detail to extract useful data from the simulator. Terrain modeling and representation becomes a central issue due to the significance of properly modeling the ground to vehicle interaction. This paper discusses design issues associated with modeling terrain for high-fidelity ground vehicle simulators. Experiences have been drawn from research leading to the design and implementation of an arbitrary resolution terrain model in the Iowa Driving Simulator (IDS), a high-fidelity ground vehicle simulator that is being integrated in the DIS network.<>