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CARLA simulator#

CARLA is a famous open-source simulator for the autonomous driving research. Now there is no official support to Autoware Universe, but some projects from communities support it. The document is to list these projects for anyone who wants to run Autoware with Carla. You can report issues to each project if there is any problem.

Project lists (In alphabetical order)#

autoware_carla_interface#

Autoware ROS package to enables communication between Autoware and CARLA simulator for autonomous driving simulation. It is integrated in autoware_universe and actively maintained to stay compatible with the latest Autoware updates.

autoware_tensorrt_vad (end-to-end planning)#

TensorRT-optimized Vectorized Autonomous Driving (VAD) node that replaces the traditional perception/localization/planning stack with a single end-to-end model trained on CARLA (Bench2Drive). Ships with a CARLA-focused launch file and integrates with autoware_launch through e2e_simulator.launch.xml.

  • Project Link: autoware_tensorrt_vad (README includes parameters, topics, and model details)
  • Usage (CARLA E2E mode):
    1. Build the package and deps: colcon build --symlink-install --cmake-args -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release --packages-up-to autoware_tensorrt_vad.
    2. Prepare CARLA following autoware_carla_interface (use carla_sensor_kit so camera topics match the VAD training order: FRONT, BACK, FRONT_LEFT, BACK_LEFT, FRONT_RIGHT, BACK_RIGHT).
    3. Ensure VAD models are downloaded (default to ~/autoware_data/vad via the Autoware setup script).
    4. Start CARLA server (example headless/GPU-friendly): ./CarlaUE4.sh -prefernvidia -quality-level=Low -RenderOffScreen.

    5. Launch Autoware in E2E mode:

      ros2 launch autoware_launch e2e_simulator.launch.xml \
  map_path:=$HOME/autoware_map/Town01 \
  vehicle_model:=sample_vehicle \
  sensor_model:=carla_sensor_kit \
  simulator_type:=carla \
  use_e2e_planning:=true \
  e2e_planning_type:=vad

carla_autoware_bridge#

An addition package to carla_ros_bridge to connect CARLA simulator to Autoware Universe software.

open_planner#

Integrated open source planner and related tools for autonomous navigation of autonomous vehicle and mobile robots

zenoh_carla_bridge#

The project is mainly for controlling multiple vehicles in Carla. It uses Zenoh to bridge the Autoware and Carla and is able to distinguish different messages for different vehicles. Feel free to ask questions and report issues to autoware_carla_launch.