Content area
Full text
Publication: The Vista, , University of Central Oklahoma , Edmond, OK
Xander Strickland
Reporter
The automotive physics simulator BeamNG.tech released this May, providing an alternative to real-world testing of self driving cars. This new technology includes an list of sensors and user-friendly, editable scenarios that require little coding to assemble, if any.
A scenario built in Beam.NG‘s base editor glows blue in a dark landscape. (SCREENSHOT/XANDER STRICKLAND)
The engine is primarily used as an efficient and realistic platform for driver training and crash test scenarios, and is advertised as being especially useful in testing autonomous driving systems. BeamNG is effective in these areas because of the unique mechanics and UI that come together to produce a system that can both realistically model soft-body collisions and deformations (using nodes and beams: nodes, which have mass and can move freely, but are restricted by beams, which act like springs which cannot bend or be twisted, but which can stretch or compress before locking into position after...