Evaluation_Engineering_October_2020 - 18

AUTOMOTIVE TEST

Marvin Test Solutions TS-700 Series GENASYS
benchtop preconfigured functional test platform.
Courtesy of Marvin Test Solutions

Data acquisition

test needs, and of course these are also
ideal for automotive test," he said. "The
TS-700 Series is 'application ready' from
day one-allowing customers to focus on
developing the application rather than developing the test system." He added that
the GENASYS platform could be used for
R&D or production test, typically for electronics devices and subsystems such as
engine control units. "These systems are
also ideal for cost-effective parallel test
requirements needed for HALT/HASS
applications," he added.

Diversified Technical Systems offers the
SLICE6 in-dummy data-acquisition system, originally developed by DTS for the
U.S. Army WIAMan vertical-load manikin, according to Steve Pruitt, cofounder
and CEO. "Automotive safety testing continues to require more sensor channels
per test, tests are specifying more configurations of ATDs (anthropomorphic
test devices, a.k.a. crash-test dummies),
so integrating the data acquisition inside
the ATDs is becoming a must," he said.
"Embedded solutions offer significant
savings in terms of reduced test setup

Diversified Technical Systems
SLICE6 data-acquisition
system shown with THOR.
Courtesy of Diversified
Technical Systems

EVALUATION ENGINEERING OCTOBER 2020

time, fewer vehicle mods to stay in target weight, and less noise issues when
processing the data."
One ATD is the Test Device for Human
Occupant Restraint (THOR), a 50th-percentile male ATD. "New THORs are being ordered directly from the factory with
SLICE6 already installed," said Pruitt.
"Embedded data acquisition is not limited
to new ATD orders," he added. "Retrofit
in-dummy DAS is available for virtually
any ATD, including small female and Q
Series child dummies. What many customers don't realize is how turnkey it is
to retrofit almost any ATD with embedded DAS."

Simulation
MathWorks has been working with the
automotive industry for more than 20
years on development methods such as
rapid prototyping, closed-loop simulation,
model verification, and automatic code
generation, according to Mark Corless,
automated driving segment manager.
"However, the current wave of softwaredefined innovations brings three new
dimensions of complexity," including
the number of new technology domains
for embedded software, the move toward
centralized computers, and the need to
meet functional safety requirements.
Corless focused on the first dimension.
"Take automated driving as an example,"
Corless said. "You need perception technologies such as computer vision, lidar,
and sensor fusion, and you need decision and motion-planning technologies
to make use of the output of the perception system." And because these domains
are new, fast evolving, and pursued by
many industries, the automotive industry faces a lack of specialists to create
algorithms and the embedded software
to implement them.
"In response to this challenge,
MathWorks developed a set of toolboxes
with MATLAB and Simulink to help automotive engineers learn these domains as
they transition from, say, powertrain and
chassis to automated driving," Corless
said. Examples include the Automated
Driving Toolbox, which provides a Ground
Truth Labeler App that enables development of perception algorithms, and

Evaluation_Engineering_October_2020

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