Supporting the Implementation of Driving Simulator Environments Through Established GIS Approaches by Extending the Geospatial Data Abstraction Library (GDAL) with OpenDRIVE

Kurzfassung

Extensive and highly detailed real-world road networks obtained through mobile mapping and spatial data processing build a basis for development and evaluation of advanced driver assistant and automation systems nowadays. Such road networks, as used in driving/traffic simulation and test vehicles, are provided in specialised description formats - one of which being OpenDRIVE. Sparse tool support makes generation, processing and validation of OpenDRIVE cumbersome. The GIS domain provides well-established and convenient tools for spatial data processing, but does not yet offer support for OpenDRIVE data. This paper describes an extension of the free and open-source Geospatial Data Abstraction Library (GDAL) with OpenDRIVE as missing link between the domains of driving simulation and geographic information systems. By bringing both domains closer together we hope to stimulate promising development of scenario generation and synthesis of reality-based road networks for driving simulator applications.