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Quick start demo

Below you can find instructions on how to setup the self-driving demo of AWSIM simulation controlled by Autoware. The instruction assumes using the Ubuntu OS.

AWSIM on the left, Autoware on the right.

Demo contents

AWSIM demo contents
Vehicle Zoe2 2018
Map Australia brisbane mount-cotton
Sensors LiDAR * 1
Camera * 1
GNSS * 1
IMU * 1
ROS2 humble

1. Preparation

Please make sure that your computer meets the following requirements in order to run the simulation correctly

Warning

Requires Nvidia RTX graphics card as it uses raytracing.

Required PC specs
OS Ubuntu 22.04
CPU 6 cores and 12 threads or higher
GPU RTX2080Ti or higher
Memory 32GB or higher
Nvidia driver 570 or higher

Localhost settings

The simulation requires appropriate network settings in order to communicate correctly between AWSIM and Autoware.
Please follow the official Autoware documentation for configuring localhost:

Autoware Documentation – DDS settings for ROS 2 and Autoware

Info

A system restart is required for these changes to work.

2. Install Autoware

  1. Clone Autoware and move to the directory. 

    git clone git@github.com:leonidaas/autoware.git &&
cd autoware

  2. Use the main branch. Please check current branch. 

    git branch

    * main

  3. Configure the environment. 
    ./setup-dev-env.sh
  4. Create the src directory and clone external dependent repositories into it. 
    mkdir src &&
vcs import src < autoware.repos
  5. Install dependent ROS packages. 
    source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash &&
rosdep update &&
rosdep install -y --from-paths src --ignore-src --rosdistro $ROS_DISTRO
  6. Build the workspace. 
    colcon build --symlink-install --cmake-args -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS="-w"

3. Download MTCOTTON-Demo

  1. Install nvidia gpu driver (Skip if already installed).

    1. Add nvidia driver to apt repository. 
      sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa &&
sudo apt update

    2. Install the recommended version of the driver. 

      sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall

      Info

      Version 570 or higher is recommended.

    3. Reboot your machine to make the installed driver detected by the system. 

      sudo reboot

    4. Open terminal and check if nvidia-smi command is available and outputs summary similar to the one presented below. 

      nvidia-smi
      Check result. 
      Fri May  2 18:55:24 2025       
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 570.124.06             Driver Version: 570.124.06     CUDA Version: 12.8     |
|-----------------------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
| GPU  Name                 Persistence-M | Bus-Id          Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan  Temp   Perf          Pwr:Usage/Cap |           Memory-Usage | GPU-Util  Compute M. |
|                                         |                        |               MIG M. |
|=========================================+========================+======================|
|   0  NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090        Off |   00000000:01:00.0  On |                  Off |
|  0%   45C    P8             25W /  450W |    5920MiB /  24564MiB |      7%      Default |
|                                         |                        |                  N/A |
+-----------------------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+

  2. Install vulkan graphics library (Skip if already installed).

    1. Update the environment. 
      sudo apt update
    2. Install the library. 
      sudo apt install libvulkan1

  3. Download AWSIM demo.

    1. Download MTCOTTON-DEMO.zip.

      Download MTCOTTON-DEMO.zip

    2. Unzip the downloaded file.

    3. Make the MtCotton.x86_64 file executable. Rightclick the MtCotton.x86_64 file and check the Execute checkbox.

      or execute the command below. 

      chmod +x <path to AWSIM folder>/AWSIM-Demo.x86_64

      Info

      MtCotton.x86_64 has to be executed from a terminal WITHOUT ROS2 being sourced in the same terminal.

4. Run AWSIM and Autoware

It is recommended to launch in the order of 1.AWSIM -> 2.Autoware. Same procedure as the actual autoware's real vehicle.

  1. Launch AWSIM demo

    1. Run MtCotton.x86_64 from the terminal to start it.

    2. Check ros2 topic list (optional) 

      cd <autoware path> &&
source install/setup.bash &&
ros2 topic list
      Result. Topics that AWSIM demo pub/subs. 
      /clock
/control/command/control_cmd
/control/command/emergency_cmd
/control/command/gear_cmd
/control/command/hazard_lights_cmd
/control/command/turn_indicators_cmd
/parameter_events
/rosout
/sensing/camera/traffic_light/camera_info
/sensing/camera/traffic_light/image_raw
/sensing/gnss/pose
/sensing/gnss/pose_with_covariance
/sensing/imu/tamagawa/imu_raw
/sensing/lidar/top/pointcloud_raw
/sensing/lidar/top/pointcloud_raw_ex
/vehicle/status/control_mode
/vehicle/status/gear_status
/vehicle/status/hazard_lights_status
/vehicle/status/steering_status
/vehicle/status/turn_indicators_status
/vehicle/status/velocity_status

  2. Launch Autoware

    1. Download mtcotton_map.zip and unzip them.
      Download mtcotton_map.zip

      Info

      mtcotton_map.zip file contains map files for pcd and osm.

    2. Launch Autoware.

      source install/setup.bash &&
ros2 launch autoware_launch e2e_simulator.launch.xml vehicle_model:=sample_vehicle sensor_model:=awsim_sensor_kit map_path:=<your mapfile location>

      Warning

      <your mapfile location> must be changed arbitrarily. When specifying the path the ~ operator cannot be used - please specify absolute full path.

  3. Start autonomous driving !

    1. With both AWSIM and Autoware activated, check if the vehicle's self-position estimation is normal. If self initialising is not working. Select 2D Pose Estimate and select the position of the car in AWSIM.

      Wait until the car shows up in Autoware.

    2. Set the navigation goal for the vehicle.

    3. Check generate path and press "Auto" button.

    4. Enable self-driving.

      Info

      The default value of Autoware's maximum speed is 15 km/h. If you want more speed, you can modify it by entering the following command in the autoware directory. 

      sed -i 's/max_vel: 4.17/max_vel: 22.2/' \
./src/launcher/autoware_launch/autoware_launch/config/planning/scenario_planning/common/common.paramyaml

      Learn more about demo simulation.

      Demo details