SmartAHS: A simulation framework for automated vehicles and highway systems

SmartAHS is a software framework for the uniform specification, simulation, and objective evaluation of Intelligent Vehicle Highway System (IVHS) alternatives. This paper illustrates the use of the object-oriented paradigm in its design, implementation, and use. Objective comparison of proposed highway automation alternatives is achieved, when all control architectures are specified in SmartAHS. amework implementation is decomposed into three layers. A core set of entities, called SmartDb, implement the base classes of the framework, the scheduling mechanism, and a special syntax for a state machine formalism. The second layer, SmartAHS customizes these classes and implements entities specific to highway automation. The control and communication engineers are the users of SmartAHS; they further customize it to implement specific simulation applications such as SmartPATH. The users of the applications are system analysts and system planners. cuss the design and implementation of SmartDb and SmartAHS and give a use-case example of a subset of SmartPATH.