Design and Development of a Digital Twin Platform for Scenario-Based Testing of Road Vehicles

There currently exists a need for a platform that provides users with the ability to perform extensive, repeatable and meaningful simulation and testing for the hardware and software which compose vehicle/autonomous vehicle systems whilst being broadly accessible, widely supported and provides robust features and development tools. The contemporary implementations of similar systems are either financially exorbitant or highly contained. The system reflected in this paper aims to fill a gap in the industry of vehicle/autonomous vehicle development by extending on currently existing open-source software to provide a highly streamlined platform to support the production of general road vehicle and autonomous vehicle driving systems. The software tools and hardware components chosen for the system will be discussed, followed by the features constructed throughout the development process. The end result of the system is a platform that allows for quick, repeatable, accurate, and nearly endless testing of a digital twin of real life vehicles. This system will allow users to gain valuable simulation and testing data of hardware and software components in a manner which is not always feasible using the traditional methods of autonomous vehicle testing.