Real-Time Simulation Environment for the Test of Driver Assistance Systems

The paper presents a simulation environment for the test of driver assistance systems. It covers software-in-the-loop and hardware-in-the-loop test capabilities. In the hardware-in-the-loop (HiL) configuration, real components such as electronic control units (ECUs) and actuators are embedded in the system.

First, requirements for a virtual environment are defined. They build the basis for the entire simulation. Special emphasis is given to the interaction between the simulated vehicle under test and its traffic environment. A virtual environment was developed in which the simulated vehicle can drive on a road together with the surrounding traffic. The simulation environment is composed mainly of a traffic scenario generator and a simulation of sensor behavior allowing the recognition of the vehicle's surroundings. Appropriate critical traffic scenarios are generated depending on the tested driver assistance system.

The simulation environment is implemented on a test bench based on a HiL simulator that was developed within the scope of the DECOS research project funded by the European Union. On the test bench, real driver assistance systems such as Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) and an Adaptive Lighting System (ALS) were tested. The driver assistance systems are distributed over a cluster of several ECUs to validate distribution, encapsulation and redundancy concepts. Within the cluster, the ECUs are connected via the new Flexray bus. The test results will be presented and discussed in the paper.