Gulliver: A Test-Bed for Developing, Demonstrating and Prototyping Vehicular Systems

Vehicular system designers often use simulation tools in order to prove vehicular systems. The computational complexity of detailed simulations limits the scale of such testings. Therefore, it is often the case that the first full-scale demonstrations of new concepts for vehicular systems are done in proving grounds and testing tracks. We propose Gulliver as a platform for studying vehicular systems on a large scale open source test-bed of low cost miniature vehicles that use wireless communication and are equipped with onboard sensors. Our approach provides a simpler yet detailed investigation of vehicular systems. This paper presents the platform with its design and a set of applications that could be demonstrated by Gulliver. Gulliver allows the design of vehicular systems to focus on the cyber-physical aspects of the studied problems. We expect that Gulliver will allow affordability and flexibility for a wider range of researchers to directly contribute to the development of future vehicular systems, such as greener transportation initiatives and zero fatality objectives.