Simulation software specialist, rFpro, has created a digital twin of Mcity, the purpose-built facility at the University of Michigan for testing connected and automated vehicles and technologies.
The creation of Mcity will result in simulated tests that correlate with real world experiments, meaning that users can prepare ahead of each visit to the real-world site in simulation.
Tests at the real-world track can also be used to validate the simulated tests, ensuring large-scale, reliable and accurate simulation testing.
Like its real-world counterpart, the digital twin contains an array of different roadside objects and materials to ensure accurate simulation of radar, lidar and camera sensors. rFpro used survey-grade lidar equipment to capture a digital copy of the 32-acre site, accurate to less than 1mm.
Road layouts, lanes and junctions are described inside rFpro in OpenDRIVE, IPG ROAD5 and SUMO formats – the three main industry standards for road network descriptions. 