U&C 新製品紹介

New Products

	UC-win/Road Ver.9
	3D realtime VR software package

●Price	New	Ultimate： Driving Sim： Advanced： Standard：	US$17,000 US$12,000 US$9,000 US$5,800		Virsion Up	Ultimate： Driving Sim： Advanced： Standard：	US$4,500 US$1,800 US$800 US$800
●Release　February, 2013

UC-win Series
Simulation

Introduction

In traffic safety research, vehicle and vehicle-infrastructure cooperation research and development, it is essential to conduct investigation, verification, and experiment under various driving conditions. The necessity of reproducing driving conditions very accurately is significantly increasing in the industry today in which intelligent transport system such as automated system and in-vehicle assistance system are being developed. In order to meet this demand, scenario function, micro simulation player, and the cluster system have been enhanced and the autonomous driving feature has been added to UC-win/Road Ver.9 as new features.

Apart from the improvement of the simulation features, the operability has also been improved and a new modeling function has been added.

-Scenario function has been enhanced so that surrounding vehicles and traffic as a whole within a scenario can be controlled very accurately.
-Micro Simulation Player plays a prerecorded simulation. It’s interoperability with traffic simulation has been improved in this new version.
-In a cluster system, driving/walking simulation can not only be performed from a master PC but also from client PC. The term active client refers to the ability of client PCs to control vehicle/pedestrian within the 3D environment. When one user is driving or walking within the 3D environment from a client PC, the 3D environment on his/her screen can now be synchronized with the 3D environment on the screen of other the client(s) connected to the cluster system.
-An autonomous driving feature not only reproduces the behavior of vehicles equipped with Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC), but also allows you to make your vehicle run autonomously.
-Thanks to the addition of model panel, it is now possible to import, place, or search all types of models using one window.
-Older versions allowed users to create road marking, road signs, trees, etc. by assigning its parameter. In this new version, stairs, posters, LED road signs, escalators, and fences can also be created as a parametric model.

Improvement of traffic simulation function

Improved scenario
The scenario function of UC-win/Road Ver.9 has become more intelligent than that of previous version. One of the improvements concern the dynamically controllable parameter mentioned in the following paragraph.

First, the speed at which each of the surrounding vehicle is traveling, the lane number of the lane on which each vehicle is traveling and its offset distance inboard from each of the lane delimiters can be now changed. In addition, the system can create a control command that triggers a specific event at a specific time and place within a scenario based on the information of the vehicle-in-front from your vehicle’s perspective. Furthermore, your vehicle’s parameters concerning ACC feature can now be changed. The same type of parameters that can be assigned to other vehicles can now be assigned to your vehicle as well.

Moreover, it is now possible to assign information of the vehicle in front as a condition that triggers a specific event within a scenario. This means that you can assign the information of the vehicle-in-front relative to your vehicle (such as how far ahead the vehicle-in-front is) as a condition that determines the next event within the scenario at a specific time and place. This mechanism is in line with the control command explained earlier. For example, the distance between your vehicle and the one in front and time to collision can be used as a reference for controlling the transition of the scenario. These commands can be used to reproduce various driving conditions. One of the many things that you can do using this feature is creating a scene in which the other vehicle cuts in front of you by creating a command that makes the other car change lanes according to the distance between your vehicle and the one in the right turn-only lane, or make the vehicle-in-front move more or less laterally by changing its offset distance inboard from each of the lane delimiters.

Another amazing thing about Ver.9 is its ability to control pedestrian simulation in that it is now possible to select pedestrian model and to assign a point from where the pedestrian starts walking and a point at which it stops.

Traffic snapshot function
Feature that takes a snap shot of a traffic condition has been added to make traffic simulation more versatile. In the previous version, a simulation recorded by the taking advantage of the Replay plug-in or Microsimulation Player can be played. The traffic snapshot feature has been built on top of this feature, allowing you to start a simulation under a specific traffic condition. The new feature comes in handy when you want to resume a simulation under a saved traffic condition in which there are many vehicles. Since the driving condition of your vehicle is saved as well, you can start driving as the simulation starts i.e. drive within a predefined simulation.


Figure 1　A scene where a vehicle cuts in front of you because there were enough space.		Figure 2　After resuming a simulation from a saved traffic condition (traffic snap shot)

ACC/Autonomous driving feature
The ability to reproduce behavior of the driving vehicle equipped with ACC and to reproduce autonomous driving within a simulation has been added. These functions can be applied in research and education on ITS and traffic safety.

An algorithm unique to ACC based on autonomous driving feature equipped on each and every vehicle within a traffic simulation in UC-win/Road has been developed. Thanks to this development, it is now possible for vehicles to keep within a specific traveling speed and time to collision, and for vehicles to switch from manual driving to autonomous driving and vice versa. Furthermore, by running vehicle-infrastructure cooperative simulation, vehicles can recognize traffic signals and speed limit.

Improvement of cluster system

Driving simulator synchronization feature
Only one person (who is controlling the mater PC) can drive in the cluster system environment (realized by Cluster plug-in that is sold separately) based on the older versions of UC-win/Road. In Ver.9, multiple users can drive or walk within same the 3D environment at the same time. This new feature is called the active client. Driving/walking simulation can be achieved through the use of devices listed in table 1 below.

Driving	Steering wheel, accelerator/brake pedal
	Game controller
	Linkage with Driving Simulator and DS plug-in (paid plug-in)
	Keyboard
Walking	Game controller
Walking	Keyboard

■Table1 : The above devices can be used to control vehicle / pedestrian model from client PC.

As the system synchronizes each and every PC via cluster plug-in, the VR environment shown on each and every computer that are connected will all be the same.

Because this is a cluster system, synchronization amongst each user is performed using low latency. Latency is the time it takes for your PC to display the movement of vehicle controlled by a different PC. It is possible to keep the latency within 1 frame.

Another great thing about the cluster system is its ability to completely synchronize every simulation elements including traffic condition, weather, movable model, and an element that dictates how flags and tress move with the wind, and hence each and every user can run a simulation at the same time under the same condition. Furthermore, the administrator of the master PC can track the active client’s field of view. Moreover, simulation run by multiple users can be controlled using a scenario.

If you are taking advantage of the simulation technology that UC-win/Road has to offer in order to do your own experiment, you may think that it would be convenient if logs written during the simulation can be output. If you are one of the many valued users who dreamed of doing this, we are pleased to inform you that part or all of the log written during a simulation can now be output from the master PC. From the client PC, logs describing the information related to vehicle or pedestrian controlled by users along the surrounding vehicle and pedestrians can be output.

The ability to calculate the log of 1 vehicle or 1 pedestrian controlled by the user using a client PC has been incorporated to UC-win/Road Ver. 9. On top of this we plan to incorporate the ability to distribute simulation as a whole in future releases.


Figure 3 Synchronous composition	Figure 4 Example of synchronizing driving simulator

Improvement of client settings
An option for hiding the backdrop of 3D environment
You can choose to hide the backdrop of 3D environment so that HUD of UC-win/Road, image within the scenario, message, image shown on video, and image within a script are displayed without the backdrop. For example, you can hide the backdrop of 3D environment and then show multimedia contents on low spec PC connected to the cluster system so that synchronization performance does not go down.

Compatibility to dome projection
New dome projection settings have been incorporated allowing you to draw using vertical FOV and horizontal FOV simultaneously without considering the aspect ratio of the screen. In addition, the projector's pitch angle can be adjusted.

Expanding the function for modelling/placing models

Model Panel
The "model panel" was developed in order to improve user-friendliness of a product more (Figure 5). The purpose of development is to summarize various functions into one screen. Reading of all models, deletion, and edit are actually attained with the same interface on this panel. Moreover, it is also possible to arrange the model selected by one click to up to geographical feature.


Figure 5　Interface of model panel		Figure 6　Search query execution

Model Library
"Model Library" function has been implemented in UC-win/Road Ver.9. It was designed so that its process would be simple and speed up. The model（rm, 3ds、ｆｂｘ） found by scanning the data folder of the computer which you are using is created without importing into memory and it is tagged depending on the folder name of the model file. The model is first imported in whole when it is used for placing and editting. This new function enables time saving because there is no necessity to import the individual model manually.

Parametric Model Plug-in
Parametric model plug-in enables you to create a sign, stair, escalator or fence by inputting parametric (Figure 7). Each of the model, such as the width and hight of stairs, numbers of a bar, the setting of the texture which is used can be customized on edit screen as requested (Figure 8).

Example of operating the parametric stairs
UC-win/Road automatically creates the models according to the images in the stairs folder. Selecting the stair you want in model panel, you can access the frame including the customized parameter (height, width, thickness, color)(Figure 9). These parameter is whenever editable and the instance of a model of sign can be created by clicking on the geometry after editing.


Figure 7 Example of parametric model (stairs)

Figure 8 Screen of editting a stair		Figure 9　 Editting a stair on model panel

Micro Simulation Player

Micro Simulation Player is a plug-ing which can record and play the simulation of UC-win/Road and play the simulation result of the other application.
The cycle of a traffic light and the movement of the vehicle and characters can be recorded, therefore, it is possible to record and play the traffic of UC-win/Road as a simulation. It is also possible to play it using 3D models of UC-win/Road by linking with micro simulation, architecture management simulation and the result of crowd movement etc.

On this time of developing Ver.9, Micro Simulation has been optimized with the rich experience of developing offroad. The algorithm of gaining the height of terrain and road has been improved, and then the height calculation performance in a project which has the road has also been improved. Moreover the process to take over the model in the surrounding the driving vehicle has been optimized and the function to sense the vehicle driving in front has been developed.
This sensing function allows you to gain the information of the speed and position of the vehicle running in front of you (Figure 10).

Figure 10 Function of outputting information
from the vehicle running in front

FBX improvement

In Ver.9, correspondence to a texture with transparency information was performed about the FBX model. It is possible to correspond to a texture with an alpha channel and a texture file with a penetration color setup, to make a polygon a penetration or to make it translucent using the set-up transparency information (Fig. 11). Moreover, also in a texture without transparency information, black can be set up as a penetration color.


Figure 11 Displaying transmission with alpha- channel l		Figure 12 Writing effect of FBX model

Driving function of a trailer

Trailer has been newly applied. Unlike the usual vehicles, a trailer controls a tractor (cab model) and a non-tractor (trailer model) as that with which it set, respectively and a different model was connected.

Figure 13 Screen of start driving a trailer

Finally

Various expansion introduced above was performed in UC-win/Road Ver.9. From now on, the extension corresponding to improvement (realization of oversteer) of a vehicles movement model, or import/export of DWG data etc. and an improvement will be tackled. Please look forward to it!

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