6.10 Traffic simulation

In addition to deterministic behavior of instances of Entity, ASAM OpenSCENARIO also provides ways to define stochastic or not precisely defined behavior. This can be useful for the following purposes:

  • Make the scenario more realistic.

  • Induce variances into the scenario sequence.

  • Define traffic parameters, such as traffic density.

To define stochastic behavior, surrounding intelligent traffic agents may be defined using instances of TrafficAction. With the help of this action, the parameterization of traffic sources, traffic sinks, traffic areas, and traffic swarms may be specified.

The definition of a TrafficAction in ASAM OpenSCENARIO does not specify which maneuvers the intelligent traffic agents execute. Instead, those actions specify the initialization or termination of vehicles whose behavior is controlled by external traffic simulation models. Spawned traffic participants make routing decisions based on their corresponding driver model, just as with the ActivateControllerAction.