Multi-agent based modeling and simulation of microscopic traffic in virtual reality system

Traffic simulation in virtual reality system plays an important part in the research of microscopic traffic behavior, but developing the traffic simulation is a difficult work because of its inherent complexity. This article focuses on the modeling and simulation of microscopic traffic behavior in virtual reality system using multi-agent technology, a hierarchical modular modeling methodology and distributed simulation. Besides, the dynamic features of the real world have been considered in the simulation system in order to improve the microscopic traffic analysis. First, the multi-agent based system framework is designed and analyzed. Then, the environment agent and the intelligent vehicle agent are presented for the simulation of interaction between vehicles and environment, especially the road geometry and wind affect on the vehicle. Finally, the application results are presented to show the feasibility of the proposed method. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.