Usage of Operating System Kernel Paradigms to Build Modern Simulation Platforms for Autonomous Driving

Compared to existing intelligent vehicles software such as Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) the complexity of Autonomous Driving (AD) software exploded. As a result of that also the development and testing complexity increased proportionally. To master this challenge modern simulation based testing approaches are an essential element. Some of the main challenges for the underlying simulation platform are the large set of simulation use cases, the huge amount of simulation runs and the great testing depth even to the level of unit tests. To find an adequate architectural paradigm for simulation platforms we first analyse the simulation requirements. From this perspective we compare simulation platforms with the established Operating System (OS) Kernel platform. We propose a concept that maps terminology of such simulation kernel and the general architecture itself to an AD simulation platform. Finally, we discuss how design principles known from operating system kernels can be reused for the development of sustainable and modular simulation platforms.