Webots.HPC: A Parallel Simulation Pipeline for Autonomous Vehicles

BSTRACT In the rapidly evolving and maturing field of robotics, computer simulation has become an invaluable tool in the design and evaluation process. Autonomous vehicle (AV) and microscopic traffic simulators can be integrated to produce cost-effective tools for simulating AVs in the traffic stream. Our research sets out to develop a formalized parallel pipeline for running sequences of Webots simulations on powerful high performance computing (HPC) resources. Since running these simulations on personal lab computers is challenging, this paper presents a framework to support the Webots and Simulation of Urban Mobility (SUMO) simulation tools in an HPC environment. Simulations can be run in sequence, with a batch job being distributed across an arbitrary number of computing nodes and each node having multiple instances running in parallel. We have demonstrated parallel execution of Webots and SUMO, a microscopic traffic simulator, with as many as 2304 simulations across 6 nodes in a 12 hour time period. Overall, this capable pipeline can be used to extend existing research or to serve as a platform for new robotics simulation endeavors. This paper will serve as an important reference for researchers in efficiently simulating AVs in a mixed roadway traffic stream.