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drawtonomy vs RoadRunner

RoadRunner

Section titled “RoadRunner”

MathWorks RoadRunner is an interactive editor for designing 3D scenes used to simulate and test automated driving systems. Together with RoadRunner Scenario, it covers HD-map authoring through dynamic scenario creation, and it is one of the standard tools used by professional ADAS / AD teams.

What RoadRunner covers:

  • HD-map authoring with full 3D, analytical geometry.
  • Import and export of ASAM OpenDRIVE 1.4 through 1.8.
  • Scenario authoring through RoadRunner Scenario, exporting ASAM OpenSCENARIO XML and DSL. Exported scenarios are designed to be compatible with OpenSCENARIO-compliant simulators including CARLA, esmini, IPG CarMaker, and dSPACE ASM. If you author scenarios in RoadRunner Scenario, drawtonomy’s scenario editor covers the same OpenSCENARIO concepts in the browser; RoadRunner and OpenSCENARIO terms maps its RoadRunner Scenario vocabulary onto drawtonomy’s.
  • MATLAB / Simulink integration for co-simulation and scripted pipelines.
  • 3D vehicle and road-furniture assets.
  • MathWorks documentation and support channels.

For teams producing HD maps or scenario catalogs at non-trivial scale, RoadRunner is the kind of tool you would normally reach for.

Licensing

Section titled “Licensing”

RoadRunner is a commercial MathWorks product. Many universities provide access through campus-wide MathWorks licenses, so it’s worth checking whether your institution already includes it. Outside of academia, it’s a paid license.

Where drawtonomy might fit alongside it

Section titled “Where drawtonomy might fit alongside it”

drawtonomy is a browser editor for driving scenarios that authors a full storyboard (actions, triggers, end / fail conditions) and runs it in the browser on esmini-WASM, with a view-only 3D preview — Chase / BEV / Driver cameras — for watching the run; it’s for reviewing playback, not 3D modeling. It imports OpenDRIVE .xodr and exports it back out, including <junction> primitives and traffic signs as <signal> entries. That junction connectivity is reliable when carrying an imported map through unedited (verbatim round-trip); generating new junction geometry from hand-drawn lanes is still low-precision. It does not do parameter sweeps or custom / ML controllers — those remain roadmap items.

A few small things drawtonomy can add alongside RoadRunner:

  • A free, browser-only sketch surface for paper figures, slide diagrams, or design discussions.
  • Import a .xodr exported from RoadRunner for a quick browser-side 2D look or light edit, with no desktop install.
  • A .drawtonomy.svg editable figure source for documentation.
  • A quick playable check in esmini for the simple version of a scene.

A reasonable pattern when both are available: RoadRunner for the production scenario, drawtonomy for the diagram of it.

In the same ASAM ecosystem

Section titled “In the same ASAM ecosystem”

RoadRunner and drawtonomy both target the same set of ASAM standards — OpenSCENARIO and OpenDRIVE. Files from one can in principle be opened by the other, and both export to esmini for playback. The OpenSCENARIO and OpenDRIVE community is a small one, and tools that contribute to it — RoadRunner, drawtonomy, Truevision Designer, LaneMaker, Blender DSC, scenariogeneration, esmini — share the same goal of making scenario-based testing more accessible. We work on different parts of the same ecosystem.

Section titled “Related reading”