A driver-in-the-loop co-simulation framework for testing predictive EDAS for commercial vehicles in urban environments

To experience realistic driving scenarios in the virtual simulation environment, strengths of both the traffic simulation and the vehicle simulation tools must be combined. In this paper, a driver-in-the-loop co-simulation framework for testing predictive eco-driving assistance systems (EDAS) for commercial vehicles in urban environments is proposed. The co-simulation is performed by exchanging information between IPG TruckMaker, a vehicle simulation software tailored for commercial vehicles, and SUMO, an open-source software for microscopic traffic simulation. To avoid delays during the data exchange process, time-steps of both the tools are synchronized. The co-simulation environment replicates a bus route in the city of Kaiserslautern along with the corresponding bus stops, traffic lights, road speed limits, pedestrian crossings and road elevation. The stochastic traffic and pedestrian flow in the road network is generated using SUMO. In this work, the co-simulation framework is extended by introducing the driver into the simulation loop. This is achieved by coupling the vehicle simulation tool with a driving simulator, in which the driver controls the ego-vehicle. The proposed framework will serve to test various use-cases of predictive eco-driving assistant systems (EDAS).