This chapter describes the Small World Simulation facility which was built in the course of the GIDS project with a dual purpose in mind: (a) to have a research tool to allow rapid prototyping and testing of various GIDS functions and components; and (b) to have a simulation facility with a complete GIDS system installed for behavioural studies that would be too labourious or too dangerous to perform in the real world. The functionality of the Small World Simulation is first described in general terms. This is followed by a detailed description of the major elements of the simulator, the graphical simulator, the vehicle dynamics model, the graphical environment, and the traverser. The traffic environment and the way it is interfaced with the GIDS simulation is then presented. Running the simulator in a particular configuration requires a set of special utilities, including a network editor, a car initializer, and a scenario editor. These are described in Section 9.4. The suitability of the Small World Simulation as a test environment for GIDS is then considered. Some experimental issues and the simulator's potential for data collection are discussed in the last section. For the covering abstract see IRRD 859107.
Abstract