Design Parking Scenario

This example shows how to design a scenario in which a vehicle follows a path to maneuver into a parking space. In this example, you learn how to design several different parking scenarios, including reverse parking and parallel parking. You can use paths and the Actor Orientation Tool to adjust actor orientation, enabling you to simulate different vehicle parking behaviors.

Design Simple Parking Scenario

This scenario contains a single vehicle actor, a sedan named Ego, and a path that routes Ego into a parking space in the forward direction.

Open Scene and Create New Scenario

Open a scene to use for your scenario. Ensure that the scene you chose already contains parking lanes. For more information on creating parking spaces in your RoadRunner scene, see Parking Tool.

  1. Open RoadRunner, and, from the start page, select Open Project, then select the scene file you want to use. If you have RoadRunner open already, then select Open Scene from the File menu and, in the file explorer, select the scene file you want to use. For this example, ensure your scene contains designated spaces for parking.

  2. Switch to scenario editing mode. In the top-right corner of the RoadRunner application, select Scene Editing, then Scenario Editing.

    Scene Editing and Scenario Editing toggle with Scenario Editing selected

    The scene is now locked, and you can begin populating the scenario.

Add Ego Vehicle and Build Path

Add a vehicle actor to the scenario and create a path to route it into one of the parking spaces.

  1. In the Library Browser, navigate to the Assets folder, then Vehicles, and drag a Sedan asset into the scenario.

  2. With the sedan still selected, in the Attributes pane, set Name to Ego.

  3. Right-click the road to create a path for Ego. Route the path into one of the parking spaces in your scene by right-clicking to add another waypoint inside the parking space. For more information on editing paths, see Path Editing.

    Sedan added to the road

  4. Simulate the scenario. From the RoadRunner toolbar, select the Simulation Tool Simulation Tool button and click Play. By default, the actor moves in the forward direction. However, you can adjust the attributes of the path to simulate different scenarios, such as reversing into a parking space.

Design Reverse Parking Scenario

Using the concepts from the previous section, you can modify the attributes of your path to design more elaborate scenarios. For example, consider changing the actor orientation so that, instead of pulling forward, it reverses into a parking space. You can instantly reverse the orientation of an actor on a path by converting a waypoint into an inflection point. To simulate an actor reversing its orientation to back into a parking space, follow these steps:

  1. Follow the steps outlined in the Design a Simple Parking Scenario section to add an actor to your scenario. Place the actor in a lane traveling the same direction as the side the parking space is on.

    Sedan actor with a path leading into a parking space.

  2. Right-click the road to add a path that leads into a parking space. To construct a path to simulate a reverse parking scenario, add another waypoint along the path at the point where you want the actor to shift to reverse. In this example, the inflection point is directly in line with the terminal waypoint of the path in the parking space.

    Note

    If RoadRunner displays an error that says Route segment cannot find a route along the road. Adjust the waypoints or make this a freeform segment, then, in the Attributes pane, select Freeform.

    A new waypoint added to the path and the resulting error in the attributes pane. The freeform option is highlited.

  3. Select the waypoint and adjust the tangents so that they are perpendicular to the road with a Heading value of 90. For information on tangent editing, see Path Editing.

    Path waypoint selected with a heading attribute of 90.

  4. From the RoadRunner toolbar, select the Actor Orientation Tool. The Actor Orientation Tool displays previews of the orientation of the actor at each waypoint.

  5. Select the waypoint you want to turn into an inflection point. In the Attributes pane, select Inflection Point. The actor previews on waypoints after the inflection point update to reflect the reversed direction.

    Path selected with the inflection point option highlighted in the attributes pane.

  6. To run your simulation, select the Simulation Tool and, in the Attributes pane, click Play.

To learn more about inflection points, see Inflection Points.

Design Street Parking Scenario

You can use these same concepts to design other types of parking scenarios, such as parallel parking along a street. Use the Actor Orientation Tool to change, the movement direction for the actor, adjust its position, and avoid collisions. This example demonstrates how to build a path for the ego vehicle so that it maneuvers between two parked vehicles to simulate parallel parking behavior.

  1. Follow the steps outlined in the Open Scene and Create New Scenario section to open a scene that contains roads with street parking. If you have a scene open, you can modify one of the roads to add street parking spaces.

  2. Add a vehicle actor to a road that contains designated spaces for street parking. Place the vehicle in a drivable lane and not directly in a parking space.

    To distinguish this vehicle from others in the scenario, you can optionally change the Name or Color values of the actor in the Attributes pane. For this example, the vehicle actor performing the parking maneuver is called Ego and the Color is red.

    Actor added to a road with street parking.

  3. With Ego selected, right-click the road to create a path leading to one of the parking spaces.

    Vehicle with a path leading to a parking space.

  4. Place two additional vehicles in the spaces in front of and behind the space where Ego intends to park.

    Ego vehicle with a path and two additional actors in adjacent parking spaces

  5. To construct a path that simulates reverse movement, add a new waypoint along the path, and move it to the location where you want Ego to begin to reverse into the space. In this example, the point at which Ego reverses is roughly parallel to the rear bumper of the parked vehicle in front of the empty space.

    Vehicle path with an additional waypoint added

  6. To specify for Ego to start reversing at the new waypoint, convert that waypoint into an inflection point. From the RoadRunner toolbar, select the Actor Orientation Tool, and then select the waypoint. In the Attributes pane, select Inflection Point.

    Depending on the shape of your path, setting the inflection point may alter the shape of the path and orientation of Ego.

    The left shows the default actor orientation previews for Ego. The right shows altered orientation previews after converting the waypoint to an inflection point.

  7. To adjust the path, from the RoadRunner toolbar, select the Scenario Edit Tool and edit the tangents of the waypoints to influence the path shape and actor orientation.

    The left shows a selected and modified waypoint tangent. The right shows how the modified waypoint updated the actor orientation.

  8. To run your simulation, select the Simulation Tool and, in the Attributes pane, click Play. Verify that Ego does not collide with either of the stationary vehicles as it maneuvers into the space.

Tip

To further refine vehicle movement and behavior, try modifying the speed at which an actor reaches each waypoint by adjusting the timing profile of your scenario with the Route Timing Tool.

See Also

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