Simulation Entities and Application Mapping

Closely related to the Application Simulator, the Mapping Ambassador is used for the initial choreography of a simulation. It defines two major aspects for the simulation units:

  1. number, properties, position (e.g. of RSUs, traffic lights) or initial routes (of vehicles, simulated in a traffic/vehicle simulator)
  2. specific application(s) to be “mapped” on the simulation units and simulated in the Application Simulation

The JSON based configuration is located in <scenario_name>/mapping/mapping_config.json.

Configuration

The Mapping configuration is divided into different parts:

  • Pre Definitions of prototypes and deviations
  • Entity Definitions of vehicles, rsus, tls servers and tmcs
  • Advanced Vehicle Definitions (including route generation) in matrixMappers
  • Common Definitions in config

Prototypes

prototypes define models for other objects, which can be reused later in the other sections of the Mapping. This allows reusing the definition of certain entities such as vehicles or the combination of multiple applications, reducing redundancies and resulting in shorter Mapping configurations.

"prototypes": [
    {
        "name": "CamVehicle",
        "accel": 2.6,
        "decel": 4.5,
        "length": 5.00,
        "maxSpeed": 70.0,
        "applications": [ "org.eclipse.mosaic.fed.application.app.etsi.VehicleCamSendingApp" ]
    }
]

Prototypes can be created for all types of entities. Next to the list of applications which is available for all types of entities, vehicle types provide various other parameters to be adjusted.

Parameter Description Deviation
vehicleClass The class of the vehicle, e.g. Car, ElectricVehicle, EmergencyVehicle, Bicycle, HeavyGoodsVehicle, and more.
accel The maximum acceleration of the vehicle in $m/s^2$. Yes
decel The maximum deceleration of the vehicle in $m/s^2$, e.g. when stopping for traffic lights. Yes
emergencyDecel The maximum deceleration of the vehicle in $m/s^2$, in order to avoid accidents.
length The length of the vehicle in $m$. Yes
maxSpeed The maximum speed of the vehicle in $m/s$. Yes
minGap The minimum gap towards the leader in $m$, i.e. the space in front in a traffic jam. Yes
sigma The driver’s imperfection $[0,1]$.
tau The reaction time (or time headway) of the vehicle in $s$. Yes
speedFactor This factor is used to determine the speed limit to comply on roads, e.g. 1.1 would exceed the speed limit by 10%. Yes
laneChangeMode The lane changing behavior of the vehicle: COOPERATIVE. CAUTIOUS, AGGRESSIVE, PASSIVE, OFF
applications The list of applications to map onto this vehicle type.

For the majority of the parameters above (see column “Deviation”), a normal distribution can be created. In that case, each individual vehicle spawned with this prototype will be loaded with a random value within this distribution. To achieve this, a separate deviations attribute must be added to the type:

"prototypes": [
        {
            "name": "Car",
            "length": 5.0, 
            "maxSpeed": 70.0,
            "deviations": {
                "length": 1.2,
                "maxSpeed": 5.0
            }
        }
    ]

According to the config above, the basic parameter value conforms to the expected value, and the given value in the deviations attribute conforms to the $\sigma$ of the Gaussian distribution(meaning for the example of maxSpeed that ~68% of the values will be located in the interval [65.0, 75.0]). The deviation will be limited to ±2$\sigma$.

Entities

Vehicles

The vehicles-section is the centerpiece of the Mapping configuration. It defines the departures (times and number), routes, and types of the vehicles.

Each spawner in this list generates a traffic stream of vehicles on a certain route. The vehicles stream begins at startingTime and generates vehicles until maxNumberVehicles is reached. The time between two consecutively vehicles is implicitly given by the targetFlow property, which defines how many vehicles per hour are going to be spawned.

All times (e.g., startingTime) can be defined as numbers or alternatively using a string and defining a unit (e.g. "5.0 s"). As some configurations use nanoseconds and others use seconds you are always on the save side using the string declaration as MOSAIC will convert values correctly.

Each vehicle spawner must refer to at least one vehicle type (types). A vehicle type must either refer to a type from the prototypes section by using its name, or be defined as a completely new vehicle type with all necessary parameters. If more than one vehicle type is referenced in the types attribute, weights can be used to specify the ratios to choose between them when loading an individual vehicle. If no weights are defined, individual vehicle types are assumed to be distributed equally.

If at least one vehicle type has a weight defined, all types without a defined weight are ignored.

"vehicles": [
    {
        "startingTime": 5.0,
        "targetFlow": 1800,
        "maxNumberVehicles": 120,
        "route": "1",
        "types": [
            {
                "name": "CAMVehicle",
                "weight": 0.1
            },
            {
                "name": "NormalVehicle", // this vehicle has no applications 
                "applications": [ ],  
                "weight": 0.2
            }
        ]
    }
]

Additional notes:

  • The route refers to a route usually defined in the scenario database file (*.db) of the scenario.
  • In order to define only one single vehicle to be spawned, the maxNumberVehicles property can be set to 1.
  • By defining the endingTime property, the flow is stopped from being generated when the given simulation time is reached.
  • The fixedOrder property controls how applications are mapped according to their weighting. More information can be found here.
  • By defining the spawningMode to one of the following values, the departure time of the individual vehicles can be adjusted:
    • CONSTANT - default case, all vehicles have equal time distance to match target_flow.
    • POISSON - vehicles depart within a Poisson distribution, resulting in a more natural traffic flow.
    • GROW - the flow of departing vehicles increases linear up to target_flow.
    • SHRINK - the flow of departing vehicles decreases linear starting at target_flow.
    • GROW_AND_SHRINK - the flow of departing vehicles increases up to target_flow and decreases afterwards.
  • By defining the laneSelectionMode to one the following values, the selection of the departure lane can be adjusted:
    • DEFAULT - selects the lane for the next vehicle based on the list of given lanes in a roundrobin manner.
    • ROUNDROBIN_HIGHWAY - trucks will be spawned on the rightmost lane, all other vehicles according to DEFAULT.
    • HIGHWAY - trucks will be spawned on the rightmost lane, all other vehicles according to BEST.
    • RANDOM - the vehicle will be placed randomly on one of the available lanes of the road.
    • FREE - the vehicle will be placed on a free lane of the road.
    • BEST - the vehicle will be placed on the best lane of the road, according to the current traffic situation and departure speed.

Road Side Units

The rsus-section offers the possibility to define instances of application supported Road Side Units (RSU)s and place them on a defined position (lat, lon coordinates). Referring to prototype definitions with simply specifying its name in the name property will automatically fill in relevant properties of the RSU.

"rsus": [
    {
        "position": {
            "latiude": 52.65027,
            "longitude": 13.54500
        },
        "name": "WeatherServer",
        "applications": [ "org.eclipse.mosaic.app.tutorial.WeatherServerApp" ]
    }
]

Traffic Lights

In the trafficLights-section, applications can be mapped to traffic light groups. Usually, individual traffic lights are part of traffic light groups to control a whole junction, whereas the junction possesses a certain position. The traffic light groups and their positions are defined in the simulator specific configuration file (e.g. the *.net.xml for SUMO and *.ttl.json for PHABMACS). The tlGroupId-property allows mapping of applications to the traffic light groups, referring them by Id.

Alternatively, the definition of the weight-property leads to a random distribution of the referred applications through ALL traffic lights of the scenario (Note: The weights do not have to add up to 100 or 1). Consequently, all traffic lights will be mapped using the specified prototypes as soon as one weight differs from zero. So in case you don’t want all traffic lights to have applications running on them you have to define one traffic light without any applications and add a weight to it. If neither tlGroupId nor weight are defined for an app, the weight will be set to 1.

"trafficLights": [
    {
        "tlGroupId": "26704448",
        "applications": [ "org.eclipse.mosaic.app.tutorial.TrafficLightApp" ]
    },
    {
        "tlGroupId": "252864802",
        "applications": [ "org.eclipse.mosaic.app.tutorial.TrafficLightApp" ]
    }
]

For more information, explained for detailed examples with different mapping options regarding traffic lights, please refer to Simulation Scenarios - Traffic Lights.

Servers

The servers-array can be used to specify server units, which can be used to communicate with other units via the cell module. Capacity configurations for servers should be done when enabling the CellModule. Delay and transmission models are configured in the network.json of the cell module (see here).

The group parameter in the mapping configuration has to match with the id in the network configuration in order to properly function.

"servers": [
    {
        "name": "MyServer",
        "group": "TestServers",
        "applications": [ "ServerApp1", "ServerApp2" ]
    }
]

Traffic Management Centers

The tmc-section offers the possibility to define instances of a Traffic Management Center (TMC). A TMC provides the possibility to interact with the infrastructure of the road, i.e. retrieving traffic properties from detectors (e.g. traffic flow), and changing properties from the road (e.g. speed limits). Additionally, TMCs are an extension of Servers and can be configured in the same way that servers are

"tmcs": [
    {
        "name": "HighwayManagement",
        "group": "TestTmcServers",
        "applications": [ "org.eclipse.mosaic.app.tutorial.HighwayManagementApp('3', 3)" ],
        "inductionLoops": [ "detector_0", "detector_1", "detector_2" ],
        "laneAreaDetectors": [ ]
    }
]

Charging Stations

While you can define Charging Stations in your mapping configuration the necessary Charging Station and Battery Simulators are part of MOSAIC Extended.
For further information on licenses, feel free to contact us via mosaic@fokus.fraunhofer.de.

The chargingStations-section can be used to specify charging stations which handle electric vehicle battery charging. A charging station is defined by a position, and a collection of charging spots, where each charging spot represents a possibility for an electric vehicle to dock. The charging spots can be defined separately from each other supporting different charging types (AC_3_PHASE, AC_1_PHASE and DC).

 "chargingStations": [
     {
         "position": {
             "latitude": 52.51284101639178,
             "longitude": 13.328037261722278
         },
         "group": "chargingStation",
         "chargingSpots": [
             {
                 "chargingType": "AC_3_PHASE",
                 "maxVoltage": 400,
                 "maxCurrent": 16
             },
             {
                 "chargingType": "AC_3_PHASE",
                 "maxVoltage": 400,
                 "maxCurrent": 16
             }
         ],
         "applications": [
             "<package>.ChargingStationApp"
         ]
     }
 ]

Mapping Order

Vehicle spawners can be configured to map types to their vehicles in two ways. The Fixed Order Mapping produces a sequence of mapped vehicles following a repeating pattern ("fixedOrder" = true). The type with the highest weight is selected first. All subsequent selections are done in a way that configured weights are satisfied as fast as possible. Per default each type is determined by rolling a weighted die ("fixedOrder" = false). This option can be configured in the global configuration of the mapping.

Demonstration

Given the weights: A=20%, B=20%, -=60%, the spawner may produce a mapping like:

fixedOrder Mapped Sequence Note
true --AB---AB---AB- repeating pattern after 5 assignments
false A--B-AA---B-B-- no repeating pattern

Use Type Distributions in Complex Traffic Scenarios

In the case, you have many vehicle spawners defined, and you want to distribute prototypes on those vehicles equally without defining them over and over again, you can use typeDistributions. By doing so, it is very simple to adjust the list of types and weights at only one place in the configuration file.

Instead of defining an equal list of types and weights for each single vehicle spawner, like in this example:

"config": {
    "fixedOrder": true
},
"vehicles": [
    {
        "startingTime": 5.0,
        "targetFlow": 1800,
        "maxNumberVehicles": 120,
        "route": "1",
        "types": [
            { "name": "TypeA", "weight": 0.1 },
            { "name": "TypeB", "weight": 0.9 }        
        ]
    },
    {
        "startingTime": 55.0,
        "targetFlow": 1800,
        "maxNumberVehicles": 120,
        "route": "2",
        "types": [
            { "name": "TypeA", "weight": 0.1 },
            { "name": "TypeB", "weight": 0.9 }        
        ]
    }
]

… you can use typeDistributions to define the distribution of types for each vehicle once and reuse them:

"typeDistributions": {
    "exampleTypeDist" : [
        { "name": "TypeA", "weight": 0.1 },
        { "name": "TypeB", "weight": 0.9 }       
    ]
},
"vehicles": [
    {
        "startingTime": 5.0,
        "targetFlow": 1800,
        "maxNumberVehicles": 120,
        "route": "1",
        "typeDistribution": "exampleTypeDist"
    },
    {
        "startingTime": 55.0,
        "targetFlow": 1800,
        "maxNumberVehicles": 120,
        "route": "2",  
        "typeDistribution": "exampleTypeDist"
    }
]

Advanced vehicle spawners with route generation

It is also possible to define and use OD (origin-destination) matrices by adding a ODMatrixMapper to the matrixMappers-list. Each MatrixMapper consists of a list of points, the vehicle-types to be used and the actual flow-values (odValues) between each of the points. It is possible to define multiple matrices using different values for startingTime and maxTime. This way can achieve distinctively different compositions of the vehicle flows.

The MatrixMapper will be called before the actual execution of the simulation and will generate vehicle-spawners for the flow between each of the points.

"matrixMappers": [
    {
        "points": [ 
            {
                "name": "CityA", 
                "position": {
                    "center": {
                        "latitude": 52,
                        "longitude": 13
                    },
                    "radius": 1000
                }       
            },
            {
                "name": "CityB", 
                "position": {
                    "center": {
                        "latitude": 48,
                        "longitude": 10
                    },
                    "radius": 1000
                }       
            }
        ],
        "types": [
            {
                "name": "CAMVehicle"
            }
        ],
        "odValues": [
            [0, 100], //100 vehicles from CityA to CityB
            [200, 0]  //200 vehicles from CityB to CityA
        ]
    }
]

Common Configuration

Next to the specific configuration of prototypes and simulation entities, some general parameters can be adjusted:

{
    "config": {
        "scaleTraffic" : 1.0,
        "fixedOrder": true,
        "start": 0, 
        "end": 500,
        "adjustStartingTimes": false,
        "randomizeFlows": false,
        "randomizeStartingTimes" : false,
        "randomizeWeights": false
    }
}
Parameter Description
scaleTraffic Scales the targetFlow of spawned vehicles per hour as well as the maxNumberVehicles by the given factor.
fixedOrder Defines, if vehicle types are mapped in fixed sequence or randomly. See above.
start Adjusts the point in time (in $s$) to start spawning vehicles. Any vehicle spawner with a lower startingTime will be ignored.
end Adjusts the point in time (in $s$) to end spawning vehicles. Any vehicle spawner with a greater startingTime will be ignored.
adjustStartingTimes If set to true, the starting time of each spawner is reduced by the value in start.
randomizeFlows If set to true, the departure time of vehicles within a vehicle spawner is slightly randomized.
randomizeStartingTimes If set to true, the starting time of each vehicle spawner is slightly randomized.
randomizeWeights If set to true, each weight greater than zero is slightly randomized.

Read the detailed documentation of the Mapping Configuration.

Unit Identifiers

Every traffic object in Eclipse MOSAIC has a globally unique string identifier. These identifiers are used to identify a traffic object in Eclipse MOSAIC as well as in different ambassadors. From user’s aspect, these identifiers will be seen in the log files which are generated after a simulation. The following table explains, which identifier belongs to which traffic object.

Traffic Object Eclipse MOSAIC Internal ID
Vehicle veh_<seq_nr>
RSU rsu_<seq_nr>
TMC tmc_<seq_nr>
Traffic Light tl_<group_id>
  • seq_nr is the sequence number of simulated vehicles, RSUs, TMCs, each starting from zero.
  • group_id is the group id of the traffic light.