High Fidelity Sensor Simulations for the Virtual Autonomous Navigation Environment

The Virtual Autonomous Navigation Environment (VANE) is a high-fidelity simulation environment for ground robotics. Physics-based realism is the primary goal of the VANE. The VANE simulation incorporates realistic lighting, vehicle-terrain interaction, environmental attributions, and sensors. The sensor models, including camera, laser ranging, and GPS, are the focus of this work. These sensor models were designed to incorporate both internal (electronic) and external (environment) noise in order to produce a sensor output that closely matches that produced in real-world environments. This sensor output will allow roboticists to use simulation further into the development and debugging process before exposing robots to field conditions.