Intelligent vehicles must make real-time tactical level decisions to drive in mixed traffic environments. Since repeatable testing of different algorithms in rare and potentially dangerous situations is necessary, we have developed a custom simulator for this task. SHIVA (Simulated Highways for Intelligent Vehicle Algorithms) mirrors many aspects of the Carnegie Mellon Navlab system, enabling algorithms developed in simulation to be implemented on the robot with minimal modification. Accurate sensor modeling (with noise and occlusion) encourages developers to create algorithms that will work on real robots. Incremental development is facilitated through hierarchies for vehicles, sensors and reasoning objects. An integrated simulation and animation environment provides interactive graphical debugging capabilities.
