Validation Method of a Self-Driving Architecture for Unexpected Pedestrian Scenario in CARLA Simulator

This paper introduces a method to validate autonomous navigation frameworks, in simulation using CARLA Simulator, fulfilling the requirements of the Euro-NCAP evaluation. We propose the protocol for evaluating an unexpected pedestrian scenario, where a walker suddenly invades the road and the vehicle has to react in a safe way. Standard validation metrics are created for this use case, which are generalizables for other use cases. To support the proposal, we describe our ROS (Robot Operating System) based Self-Driving architecture, open source and implemented in an electric vehicle. Then, we explain the procedures and requirements needed for the validation protocol that we propose. Finally, we show the metrics and results obtained in simulation for different ego-vehicle velocities and weather conditions. The scenarios implemented in Carla are publicly available(2).