Development of a Virtual Simulation Environment and a Digital Twin of an Autonomous Driving Truck for a Distribution Center

This paper presents the development of a Virtual Simulation Environment (VSE) and a Digital Twin (DT) of an autonomously driving truck for a distribution center. While autonomous driving on public roads still faces various technical and legal challenges, within a distribution center, which is a confined area, some of these restrictions do not apply. Therefore, distribution centers can be the first environment where the autonomous driving of trucks is possible. A distribution center is a closed environment with no, or minimal generic traffic, where the trucks have relatively low speeds, short stopping distance and layout precisely known. Dedicated sensors locate the trucks. This paper addresses the mentioned aspects of driving in the distribution centers describing the necessary steps taken for the design, implementation, and testing of a VSE for a distribution center, and a DT of an autonomously driving truck. The development of the VSE is based on the integration of a SysML modeling tool – IBM Rhapsody, MATLAB Simulink, and Unity Game Engine using a Model-Based System Engineering approach. The paper also presents the test and the validation of a driving scenario used in a distribution center, using the TruckLab setup of the Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands. The VSE and the DT showed considerable potential as testing and validation tools for automotive engineers, making it possible to define driving test scenarios for different types of tractor and trailer combinations.