Calibration and Verification of Driver Assistance and Vehicle Safety Communications Systems

The development of complex control systems requires appropriate tool that assists engineers in the development, test, and verification processes. In this paper we use vehicle safety as an example of a control system and demonstrate a test-bed that can be used from the beginning of development to end of line production. Safety applications such as Cooperative Forward Collision Warning (CFCW), Emergency Electronic Brake Lights, Lange Change Warning and Pre-Crash Sensing are given the highest development priority for future vehicles. There are several proposals for the safety application systems based on Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC). The control system for safety application can be prototyped, calibrated and tested by utilizing an off-the-shelf tool called CANape that has appropriate interfaces to the vehicle bus systems, Electronic Control Unit (ECU) and multimedia recording. The tests and data collection process can also be automated in the lab or in the field tests. CANape has assisted automotive manufacturers and suppliers in developing driver assistance, vehicle and traffic safety, comfort and infotainment systems in additional to power train and transmission control applications. This paper introduces a test-bed for development, tuning, testing and verification of vehicle-to-vehicle communications systems. The concept can be applied to development of any control system in vehicle environment.