Development of a Unity–VISSIM Co-Simulation Platform to Study Interactive Driving Behavior

Abstract

This paper presents the system development of a co-simulation platform aimed at studying driving behavior with multiple participants. The objective of this study was to create an immersive and interactive environment where different driving scenarios could be simulated and driver behavior could be recorded and analyzed. The platform integrated the Unity game engine with the VISSIM microscopic traffic simulator to create a hybrid simulation environment that combined the advantages of both tools. A virtual reality massive multiplayer online (VRMMO) module was developed to capture the interactions of the participants during the simulation experiments. The external control devices of this co-simulation platform were calibrated using the empirical data of a Controller Area Network (CAN-BUS) from actual driving behaviors. The main contributions of this study are the demonstration of the Unity–VISSIM co-simulation platform in simulating interactive driver behavior and the potential for its use in various research areas, such as intelligent transportation systems, human factors, driving education, and traffic safety analyses. The platform could be a valuable tool for evaluating the effectiveness of collective intelligence countermeasures in improving traffic systems, with relatively lower costs and risks.