Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - January 2022 - 23

Simulation
By integrating a dynamometer into AV sensor-suite testing, Horiba's simulation tools can evaluate not only sensor performance, but how AV
algorithms affect vehicle efficiency, a parameter that will become more critical as more platforms electrify.
of the vehicle going at certain speed, for example, and
see how the vehicle reacts. That's sensor simulation. "
Sensor stimulation, according to Breton, involves
actively engaging the vehicle's onboard sensors. " If
you've got a radar system, for example, you could be
generating a signal, a radar return, " he explained, that
the vehicle receives that is not based on the signal that
the vehicle emitted from its radar system. " It's a radar
return that shows the presence of a vehicle or object
at a certain location, moving at a certain speed. You're
stimulating the sensors, but there's no physical connections
between your test systems and the sensors on
the vehicle. "
The third category, physical body testing, is
in effect an extension of sensor stimulation, where
physical models are located at appropriate times to
determine how the vehicle, guided by its AV sensor
suite, reacts. " One example of that, " Breton offered,
" is you have the vehicle out on a test track and you
have a fake pedestrian cross in front of the vehicle.
That's a physical body and you can watch the reaction
of the vehicle. "
The 'space telescope' test
Physical body testing is a crucial step in developing
effective AV sensor suites, but if only available outdoors,
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
it becomes weather-dependent. Horiba's new Scenario
CAV system seeks to leverage much of the benefit
of test-track-based physical body testing with the
controlled environment and 24/7 testing ability of a lab.
" The ultimate test is the real world, " Breton noted.
" Once you put that sensor suite into a vehicle, it's possible
that you get some kind of interference from the vehicle
itself. So any of these things will be followed up by some
overall type of physical body testing in the end. "
" I call this physical-body-type testing the 'space
telescope test,' where you're testing the whole thing
together without interfering with its operation, " Breton
said. " When the Hubble Space Telescope was launched,
it had a problem where the images were blurry. NASA
had contractors who built the various modules, and
each module was tested on the ground and each
performed according to a spec, but the entire space telescope
was not tested as a single system on the ground. "
The Scenario CAV setup, Breton claimed, came
mostly from the desire within the industry to be able to
test various standard scenarios, such as highway merges
or emergency braking scenarios. The benchtop prototype
previewed in October has given way to production
of a full-scale set, which already is underway.
" The demonstration prototype has overhead arms
so that they're not interfering, not being picked up by
January 2022 23
Horiba

Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - January 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - January 2022