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Add New Vehicle

This document describes process of adding new vehicle model to Unity project.

Prepare Vehicle 3D model

A good example of how to prepare the 3D vehicle model prefab is Lexus RX450h which is already added and used in AWSIM project. The model can be found under Assets/AWSIM/Models/Vehicles/Lexus RX450h 2015 directory.

To add new model user have to divide the model's meshes in the following parts:

  • Body
  • Each wheel
  • Steering

The division needs also to be applied regarding the materials:

  • HeadLight
  • BrakeLight
  • TurnSignal
  • ReverseLight

Setup Physics & Collider

To make the vehicle model properly interact with other parts of simulation system, the following steps need to be conducted:

  1. Attach and configure Rigidbody
  2. Create MeshCollider for models body
  3. Set up WheelCollider on each wheel. Also attach the editor extension script for WheelColliderConfig.cs, which automatically sets unnecessary parameters of WheelCollider. Set up parameters through the WheelColliderConfig inspector.

Attach control scripts

The last step is to attach proper component scripts to the vehicle model prefab. The scripts will make the vehicle controllable and interactive with Autoware:

  1. Wheel.cs

    Attach Wheel.cs script to each WheelCollider in the 3D model

    property feature
    WheelCollider See Unity documentation
    WheelVisualTransform Reference to WheelVisual Object

  2. Vehicle.cs

    Attach Vehicle.cs script to vehicle root GameObject

    property feature
    CenterOfMass Center of Mass position set by transform
    UseInertia Flag enabling moment of inertia usage
    Inertia Moment of inertia when UseInertia is enabled (kgm^2)
    Front, Rear Axle Reference to each Wheel component

  3. VehicleVisualEffect.cs

    Attach VehicleVisualEffect.cs script to the GameObject to which Vehicle.cs is attached

    property feature
    Vehicle Reference to Vehicle component
    Brake Lights Brake light materials
    Left, Right Turn Signal Lights Turn signal light materials
    Turn Signal Timer Interval Sec Blink time of turn signal light
    Reverse Lights Reverse light materials

  4. VehicleROSInput.cs

    Attach VehicleROSInput.cs script to the GameObject to which Vehicle.cs is attached. You can configure the topic of each msg to subscribe in ROS2. When this script is attached, default values are set.

Info

Attach VehicleKeyboardInput.cs for keyboard operation instead.