Innopolis Simulator

Innopolis Simulator is the simulator of pilotless transport which fulfills different scenarios on the road, imitates the movement of traffic and pedestrians and their detection, models all necessary sensors and sensors — the radar, a lidar, cameras, GPS, IMU. In a software package the modules ground truth which define exact arrangement of objects in space are implemented.

2020: Innopolis Simulator became open

Innopolis Simulator developed by specialists of the Russian IT university can be used in education, for debugging and testing of autonomous moving objects. Now can use the simulator and become the virtual operator of the UAV in Innopolis anyone, reported on August 5, 2020 at the University Innopolis.

The Innopolis university made open the simulator of UAVs

The beta of the simulator research associates of Competence center of NTI in the "Component Technologies of Robotics and Mechatronics" direction based on the University provided in October, 2019 Innopolis. With its help developers of drones will be able to avoid critical errors of design, to correct them at early stages, to test more than a prototype and to save on natural tests. For tests of a pilotless system only one developer and access to a system is necessary. It reduces the price of development of UAVs and does them safer, emphasized at the university.

Specialists of the Laboratory of the autonomous transport systems which is a part of the center used Innopolis Simulator in work on own flying and land pilotless solutions for passenger transport based on KIA Soul and Hyundai Santa Fe and cargo transport based on "KamAZ" — the software package was used for debugging and behavior modeling of full model in the simulator.

"Besides, on the simulator we carried out debugging of the automatic mode of management of the unmanned aerial vehicle of vertical take off and landing" — the senior development engineer of Laboratory of the autonomous transport systems Sergey Kopylov told.

Innopolis Simulator fulfills different scenarios on the road, imitates the movement of traffic and pedestrians and their detection, models all necessary sensors and sensors — the radar, a lidar, cameras, GPS, IMU. In a software package the modules ground truth which define exact arrangement of objects in space, and visualization of active cameras thanks to what images come to the system of the UAV in real time are implemented.

Specialists of the University Innopolis developed modules of mapping and dynamic loading of cards which texturing of a surface takes place in real time, a landscape and some objects of an environment depending on car provision in global coordinates.

According to information for August, 2020 at the simulator of the University Innopolis the following parameters: flexible configuring of each sensor, removal of data sets, development of unique scenarios, support of various models of moving objects, the module of mapping, a geokoding and procedural generation of a surface and objects depending on car provision, the module of creation and export of HD cards, the module of time management of day and weather effects, the analytics module, the module of editing content of a scene on runtime, the built-in converter of coordinates and the module of creation of a roadbed on the data obtained in advance.

From the moment of the first release developers of IT university made a number of additions to the simulator:

• Added a feature to change parameters of each sensor of the pilotless vehicle at the runtime a route task.
• Added accomplishment of scenarios using python-scripts.
• Added start of the simulator with the file of a configuration where the preset settings are stored.
• Improved a visual component — passed to HDRP for increase in realness. Effects of the environment are improved.
• Added a feature for use of VR glasses.
• Added connection of a wheel of Logitech to the simulator for accomplishment of natural scenarios in the manual mode.
• Added a feature for creation 3D - objects from a lidarny cloud of the points received at natural drives for increase in positioning accuracy of objects in a scene of the simulator when developing.
• Took out settings in the user interface for convenience and flexibility when modeling, beginning from system parameters, finishing with a possibility of inclusion/switching off of different static objects.

2019: Innopolis Simulator creation

On October 14, 2019 the RVC company reported that research associates of the Center of component technologies of robotics and mechatronics of the University Innopolis (Competence center of NTI) created a software package for debugging and behavior modeling by autonomous moving objects in the simulator. Using it developers of drones will be able to avoid critical errors of design, to correct them at early stages, to test more than a prototype and to save on natural tests.

Tests of the real machine require 2 — 3 persons who should do many drives on the real platform. The simulator allows to make all this without an exit to the street with participation of one person, explains the research engineer of Laboratory of autonomous vehicles Sergey Kopylov

Also the system of visualization of active cameras was developed thanks to what images from cameras (different types) it is emulated in the simulator and indulge in a management system, for extraction of the necessary information. Modules of mapping and dynamic loading of cards which texturing of a surface takes place in real time, a landscape and some objects of an environment depending on car provision in global coordinates too were developed. The solution gives the chance of transformation of coordinates from the different systems and creation of a roadbed. Besides, the module for creation and export of HD cards is integrated into it.

In comparison with analogs, the simulator of Competence center of NTI based on the University Innopolis has 10 parameters: flexible configuring of each sensor, removal of data sets, development of scenarios, support of various models of moving objects, the module of mapping, a geokoding and procedural generation of a surface and objects depending on car provision, the module of creation and export of HD cards, the module of time management of day and weather effects, the analytics module, the module of editing content of a scene on runtime.

Development of virtual environment for modeling of the movement of the robotic city car will reduce the cost of its development process, especially in the field of setup and testing of the touch and managing equipment. Already during development it will be clear to specialists that from the equipment it is necessary and what it is possible to refuse. Using our simulator the car security level will raise during the movement in the real urban environment, added the head of the Center of component technologies of robotics and mechatronics Alexander Klimchik