Emergent Mind

Abstract

Realistic scene-level multi-agent motion simulations are crucial for developing and evaluating self-driving algorithms. However, most existing works focus on generating trajectories for a certain single agent type, and typically ignore the consistency of generated trajectories. In this paper, we propose a novel framework based on diffusion models, called SceneDM, to generate joint and consistent future motions of all the agents, including vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians, etc., in a scene. To enhance the consistency of the generated trajectories, we resort to a new Transformer-based network to effectively handle agent-agent interactions in the inverse process of motion diffusion. In consideration of the smoothness of agent trajectories, we further design a simple yet effective consistent diffusion approach, to improve the model in exploiting short-term temporal dependencies. Furthermore, a scene-level scoring function is attached to evaluate the safety and road-adherence of the generated agent's motions and help filter out unrealistic simulations. Finally, SceneDM achieves state-of-the-art results on the Waymo Sim Agents Benchmark. Project webpage is available at https://alperen-hub.github.io/SceneDM.

Overview

  • SceneDM generates realistic virtual traffic by simulating various agents like vehicles and pedestrians, improving autonomous vehicle tech development.

  • A Transformer-based network in SceneDM creates synchronized future trajectories for different agents, avoiding collisions and adhering to traffic laws.

  • Consistent diffusion in SceneDM ensures local smoothness in motion paths, reflecting natural movement and capturing agent interactions.

  • Scene-level scoring in SceneDM evaluates safety and road adherence, leading to high-quality traffic simulations.

  • SceneDM's advancements in traffic simulation show promise for better testing and safety validation of autonomous driving systems.

Introduction to Scene-level Multi-agent Trajectory Generation

The challenges of creating realistic virtual traffic environments involve accurately simulating the interactions and movements of different agents like vehicles, bicycles, and pedestrians. This is essential for developing and validating autonomous vehicle technology. Traditional methods often focus on single agent types and lack the ability to realistically model the varied behaviors present in complex scenes.

A Novel Approach with SceneDM

The method presented in this paper, known as SceneDM, centers around a Transformer-based network to generate multiple, synchronized future trajectories for different agents within a scene. This approach aims to maintain consistency across these trajectories, meaning that they avoid unrealistic movements, such as collisions, and adhere to traffic laws, like staying within road boundaries.

Enhancements via Consistent Diffusion

SceneDM introduces what is called consistent diffusion to enhance local smoothness, ensuring that the motion paths it generates closely resemble the natural movement patterns of agents. The process involves partially overlapping the noise added during sequence generation to preserve the continuity of motion from one state to the next. In doing this, SceneDM effectively captures the temporal dependencies and interaction dynamics between agents.

Evaluating Generated Scenes

To ensure the practicality of simulations, SceneDM incorporates a scene-level scoring function, which evaluates the safety and road-adherence of each generated motion. This helps in filtering out any unrealistic or rule-violating scenarios. Publicly available benchmark results underscore SceneDM's leading performance, particularly in creating smooth trajectories that reflect the complex and interactive nature of real-world traffic.

Conclusion

Overall, SceneDM represents a significant step forward in traffic simulation technology. It not only generates trajectories for multiple types of agents but also emphasizes the importance of keeping these trajectories locally smooth and consistent with each other. Such advancements promise to enhance the testing of autonomous driving systems, making simulations closer to real-world complexities and thus more reliable for safety validation purposes.

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