Road traffic simulation apparatus

• US 20040176936A1
• Filed: 12/16/2003
• Published: 09/09/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Kuroda, Mitsuhide, Hashimoto, Yuichi, Sawada, Yasuhiro, Torii, Toyotaka, Ohtsu, Akihiko, Watari, Katsuyoshi
• Granted Patent: US 7,487,074 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 703/8
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/167 Control of land vehicles

Abstract

In a road traffic simulation apparatus that expresses a plurality of mobile units and road traffic environments on a computer to simulate traffic situations in association with a plurality of mobile units, each of the mobile units is expressed by a combination of a driver model, a model of driving operations of a virtual driver, and a vehicle dynamics model, a model of physical behaviors of a mobile unit. The mobile units are programmed to travel independently to each other in a road traffic environment that is expressed on the computer.

Claims

1. A computer implemented road traffic simulation apparatus representing a plurality of mobile units and traffic environments on a computer for simulating traffic situations in association with the mobile units, comprising:

a mobile unit model including a driver model, a model of driving operations by a virtual driver, and a vehicle dynamics model, a model of physical behavior of each mobile unit; and

a traffic environment database providing traffic environment,

wherein a plurality of said mobile units are programmed to travel independently to each other in the traffic environment generated on the computer based on the data provided by the database.

2. The road traffic simulation apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said database including passable zone data for representing areas in which the mobile units can travel and impassable zone data for representing impassable zones in which the mobile units are unable to travel or are not permitted to travel.

3. The road traffic simulation apparatus as claimed in claim 2, wherein the impassable zones, operating status of traffic regulations and/or traffic facilities and the other traffic mobiles are uniformly represented by impassability levels indicating levels of difficulty for the mobile unit to travel.

4. The road traffic simulation apparatus as claimed in claim 3, wherein each of the impassability levels is converted to an impassability level from driver'"'"'s view in accordance with a distance between the mobile unit and the relevant impassable zone.

5. The road traffic simulation apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein the driver model autonomously determines a speed and a direction for the relevant mobile unit model to travel based on the impassability level from driver'"'"'s view.

6. The road traffic simulation apparatus as claimed in claim 5, wherein the driver model performs a process for converting the determined speed and direction into a driving operation value to be provided to the vehicle dynamics model.

7. The road traffic simulation apparatus as claimed in claim 3, wherein the impassability levels are calculated in accordance with certain rules.

8. The road traffic simulation apparatus as claimed in claim 7, wherein each of the vehicle dynamics models is a high freedom model that has a precision to allow for use in a driving simulator.

9. The road traffic simulation apparatus as claimed in claim 8, further comprising a driving simulator, wherein input relating to driving operations of an operator of the driving simulator is provided directly to the vehicle dynamics model for one of the plurality of mobile units.

10. The road traffic simulation apparatus as claimed in claim 9, wherein parameters for determining a behavior of at least one of the driver model and the vehicle dynamics model are different for each mobile unit model.

11. A computer readable medium storing a road traffic simulation program that is configured to represent a plurality of mobile units and road traffic environments on a computer, when executed on the computer, said program performing:

representing a plurality of mobile units, each mobile unit being represented by a driver model of driving operations by a virtual driver and a vehicle dynamics model of a physical behavior of each mobile unit;

simulating traffic situations in association with the mobile units,

wherein the mobile units travel independently to each other in a road traffic environment that is expressed on the computer.

12. A method of performing computer implemented simulation of road traffic involving a plurality of mobile units and traffic environments, comprising the steps of:

preparing a mobile unit model having a driver model, a model of driving operations by a virtual driver, and a vehicle dynamics model, a model of physical behavior of each mobile unit; and

preparing a traffic environment database for providing traffic environment on a computer,

wherein a plurality of said mobile units are programmed to travel independently to each other in the traffic environment generated on the computer based on the data provided by the database.

13. The method as claimed in claim 12, wherein said database including passable zone data for representing areas in which the mobile units can travel and impassable zone data for representing impassable zones in which the mobile units are not permitted to travel.

14. The method as claimed in claim 13, wherein the impassable zones, operating status of traffic regulations and/or traffic facilities and the other traffic mobiles are uniformly represented by impassability levels indicating levels of difficulty for the mobile unit to travel.

15. The method as claimed in claim 14, wherein each of the impassability levels is converted to an impassability level from driver'"'"'s view in accordance with a distance between the mobile unit and the relevant impassable zone.