Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - January 2022 - 24

Simulation
"
All of these technologies on the vehicles are new, and so the testing
technologies are just as new or even newer.
"
Dyno-based physical body testing will permit
development engineers to tune ADAS systems for
both effectiveness and efficiency, a crucial aspect
as more products become electrified. " Vehicles will
share information with the infrastructure to know
when traffic lights are red up ahead and with other
vehicles to do cooperative merging, " Breton noted.
" All of those factors come into play in trying to
maximize the fuel economy. "
A second major function of a controlled-environHoriba
provides a host of solutions to validate autonomous functions in
the test cell, permitting evaluation of AV sensors including lidar, radar and
cameras, to help to close the gap between simulation, hardware-in-the-loop
(HIL) and proving-ground tests.
the radar of the vehicle, " Breton said of the Scenario
CAV system. " And it's moving these lightweight automotive
lookalike objects that have similar radar cross
sections to the back of a real vehicle, that can be moved
around in desired relationships to the vehicle under
test sitting on the dynamometer. But they're lighter
and smaller than a real vehicle, so they can be moved
quickly with a lesser infrastructure. "
Confirming function and efficiency
Such a test system opens a wealth of development
opportunities, Breton claimed, citing adaptive cruise
control as just one system ripe for optimization.
" There are multitude of questions related to testing
the adaptive cruise. Does it work properly? Does it
work as designed? What's the fuel-economy impact of
having the adaptive cruise on versus a human driver? "
Efficiency, Breton noted, will quickly become a
hallmark for evaluating ADAS systems. " The fueleconomy
impacts are very important, but they're not
getting much attention yet because [AV] functionalities
right now are primarily talked about from the convenience
and the safety points of view, " he said. " But they
also have the ability to improve energy efficiency. "
ment physical body test would be for regulators, letting
them craft and enact standardized testing for AV functionality.
" If you are a regulator, you're not going to be
knowledgeable with all the technical details of each of
the sensors, " Breton commented from an experienced
perspective, having worked at the EPA for 17 years.
" You want to test the whole system and you want
to do away with all the assumptions that have been
made, " he continued. " Every time you do a test of a
specific sensor, you have to make some assumptions.
But the final, 'space telescope-type test' is done with the
elimination of all those assumptions. That's where this
physical-body-type testing comes into play. "
Ahead of the AV curve
One of the biggest challenges for Horiba, Breton
acknowledged, was keeping its development tools on
pace with an industry advancing so rapidly. " Everyone
wants these capabilities, but the sensors, the methods,
the fusion algorithms, everything is evolving very
quickly. All of these technologies on the vehicles are
new, and so the testing technologies are just as new or
even newer, " he said. " Typically, customers want more
and more virtual work because it can be done in any
weather and can be done indoors. "
" Any given sensor may not even be available in
two or three years, so we can't be developing just based
on the specific sensor, " Breton acknowledged. " We have
to develop methods and technologies that go beyond
a specific sensor. In the future, maybe everyone will
settle out on one or two systems once things are fully
evolved 10 to 15 years from now. But right now, things
are evolving very quickly. We have to keep that in mind
and not make our solutions dependent upon specific
models of sensors. " ■
24 January 2022
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE ENGINEERING
Horiba
Autonomous Vehicle Engineering - January 2022

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