Realistic adversarial scenario generation via human-like pedestrian model for autonomous vehicle control parameter optimisation

Fuente: arXiv
Salvato in:
Dettagli Bibliografici
Autori principali: Wang, Yueyang, Dogar, Mehmet, Darling, Russell, Markkula, Gustav
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
Soggetti:
Accesso online:
Tags: Aggiungi Tag
Nessun Tag, puoi essere il primo ad aggiungerne!!
_version_ 1866915773619896320
author Wang, Yueyang
Dogar, Mehmet
Darling, Russell
Markkula, Gustav
author_facet Wang, Yueyang
Dogar, Mehmet
Darling, Russell
Markkula, Gustav
contents Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are rapidly advancing and are expected to play a central role in future mobility. Ensuring their safe deployment requires reliable interaction with other road users, not least pedestrians. Direct testing on public roads is costly and unsafe for rare but critical interactions, making simulation a practical alternative. Within simulation-based testing, adversarial scenarios are widely used to probe safety limits, but many prioritise difficulty over realism, producing exaggerated behaviours which may result in AV controllers that are overly conservative. We propose an alternative method, instead using a cognitively inspired pedestrian model featuring both inter-individual and intra-individual variability to generate behaviourally plausible adversarial scenarios. We provide a proof of concept demonstration of this method's potential for AV control optimisation, in closed-loop testing and tuning of an AV controller. Our results show that replacing the rule-based CARLA pedestrian with the human-like model yields more realistic gap acceptance patterns and smoother vehicle decelerations. Unsafe interactions occur only for certain pedestrian individuals and conditions, underscoring the importance of human variability in AV testing. Adversarial scenarios generated by this model can be used to optimise AV control towards safer and more efficient behaviour. Overall, this work illustrates how incorporating human-like road user models into simulation-based adversarial testing can enhance the credibility of AV evaluation and provide a practical basis to behaviourally informed controller optimisation.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_02082
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Realistic adversarial scenario generation via human-like pedestrian model for autonomous vehicle control parameter optimisation
Wang, Yueyang
Dogar, Mehmet
Darling, Russell
Markkula, Gustav
Human-Computer Interaction
Robotics
Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are rapidly advancing and are expected to play a central role in future mobility. Ensuring their safe deployment requires reliable interaction with other road users, not least pedestrians. Direct testing on public roads is costly and unsafe for rare but critical interactions, making simulation a practical alternative. Within simulation-based testing, adversarial scenarios are widely used to probe safety limits, but many prioritise difficulty over realism, producing exaggerated behaviours which may result in AV controllers that are overly conservative. We propose an alternative method, instead using a cognitively inspired pedestrian model featuring both inter-individual and intra-individual variability to generate behaviourally plausible adversarial scenarios. We provide a proof of concept demonstration of this method's potential for AV control optimisation, in closed-loop testing and tuning of an AV controller. Our results show that replacing the rule-based CARLA pedestrian with the human-like model yields more realistic gap acceptance patterns and smoother vehicle decelerations. Unsafe interactions occur only for certain pedestrian individuals and conditions, underscoring the importance of human variability in AV testing. Adversarial scenarios generated by this model can be used to optimise AV control towards safer and more efficient behaviour. Overall, this work illustrates how incorporating human-like road user models into simulation-based adversarial testing can enhance the credibility of AV evaluation and provide a practical basis to behaviourally informed controller optimisation.
title Realistic adversarial scenario generation via human-like pedestrian model for autonomous vehicle control parameter optimisation
topic Human-Computer Interaction
Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.02082