Microscopic Traffic Model in Virtual Environment

In order to improve the simulation fidelity of vehicle behaviors in a virtual traffic environment and realize real-time interaction between users and the system, a microscopic traffic model was proposed. This model is composed of a road model and a vehicle behavior model. The road model has a hierarchy structure and includes traffic properties, geometrical parameters and network topology relationship of lanes. The vehicle behavior model takes into account traffic characters of drivers, vehicle performances and other factors, including free driving, car-following and lane-changing models. Simulation vehicles detect position relations with the car simulator driven by a user and then select to brake, change lanes or stop. A virtual traffic environment including 153 lanes was established to test the proposed model. The experiment result indicates that the microscopic traffic model can show individual differences of vehicles' behaviors. When 600 simulation vehicles are included in the road network, the time-consuming of one simulation loop is 2 to 4 ms to meet the requirements of user real-time interaction.