Cyber-Physical Mobility Lab: An Open-Source Platform for Networked and Autonomous Vehicles

TLDR

This paper introduces the Cyber‑Physical Mobility Lab, an open‑source platform for networked and autonomous vehicles, and outlines plans for remote web‑interface access. The CPM Lab comprises 20 physical µCars and unlimited simulated vehicles, built on a four‑layered architecture with DDS‑based middleware that synchronizes entities via logical execution time for deterministic, reproducible experiments. The platform enables rapid functional prototyping of networked decision‑making algorithms, as shown by two example experiments that illustrate its utility for researchers and students across disciplines.

Abstract

This paper introduces our Cyber-Physical Mobility Lab (CPM Lab). It is an open-source development environment for networked and autonomous vehicles with focus on networked decision-making, trajectory planning, and control.The CPM Lab hosts 20 physical model-scale vehicles (µCars) which we can seamlessly extend by unlimited simulated vehicles. The code and construction plans are publicly available to enable rebuilding the CPM Lab.Our four-layered architecture enables the seamless use of the same software in simulations and in experiments without any further adaptions. A Data Distribution Service (DDS) based middleware allows adapting the number of vehicles during experiments in a seamless manner. The middleware is also responsible for synchronizing all entities following a logical execution time approach to achieve determinism and reproducibility of experiments. This approach makes the CPM Lab a unique platform for rapid functional prototyping of networked decision-making algorithms.The CPM Lab allows researchers as well as students from different disciplines to see their ideas developing into reality. We demonstrate its capabilities using two example experiments. We are working on a remote access to the CPM Lab via a web-interface.