ROS and Unity Based Framework for Intelligent Vehicles Control and Simulation

Abstract

Intelligent vehicles simulations are utilized as the initial step of experiments before the deployment on the roads. Nowadays there are several frameworks that can be used to control vehicles, and Robot Operating System (ROS) is the most common one. Moreover, there are several powerful visualization tools that can be used for simulations, and Unity Game Engine is on the top of the list. Accordingly, this paper introduces a methodology to connect both systems, ROS and Unity, thus linking the performance in simulations and real-life for better analogy. Additionally, a comparative study between GAZEBO simulator and Unity simulator, in terms of functionalities and capabilities is shown. Last but not least, two use cases are presented for validation of the proposed methodology. Therefore, the main contribution of this paper is to introduce a methodology to connect both systems, ROS and Unity, to achieve the best possible approximation to vehicle behavior in the real world.