2015 Award Winners
Award-winning project: Innovative test environment and software tools for modern driver assistance systems
Project partners: Daimler AG, Stuttgart | Steinbeis Interagierende Systeme GmbH, Esslingen
With the development of collision-mitigating and collision-avoidance driver assistance systems, there is a growing demand for resources to carry out manoeuvre-based testing of driver assistance control units in the laboratory. Comprehensive testing of software algorithms under challenging conditions is only possible in a vehicle, as the scenarios can only be carried out in specialised environments and place considerable strain on the test drivers. At least since the series development of ESP® control units, the automated testing of driver assistance systems in hardware-in-the-loop (HiL) test environments – in which the environment is virtually simulated – has become established in the automotive industry.
Daimler AG, represented by Mercedes-Benz Cars Research and Development in Sindelfingen, therefore commissioned Steinbeis Interagierende Systeme GmbH to design and implement a system that enables a vehicle control unit for a driver assistance function to be operated on a standard PC and tested on the basis of virtual journeys.
Ten years ago, this collaboration resulted in a prototype. The test system and method – known as ‘Mini-HiL’ – are now used in the series development of driver assistance systems that detect the surrounding environment. The complexity of the test environment – particularly the simulation required – has been encapsulated in such a way that the training time required to use the test platforms is kept to a minimum. The increasing number and complexity of vehicle functions have led to a manifold increase in the test volume across successive generations of driver assistance systems. A constant challenge is to keep the manoeuvre-based test language practical and straightforward whilst still meeting the diverse requirements placed on the test platform. The development of the test tools was carried out by Daimler and the Steinbeis team through forward-looking projects, intellectual property rights, final-year projects and doctoral theses, in collaboration with the University of Tübingen and the universities of Esslingen and Karlsruhe. The project partners are being awarded the Steinbeis Foundation’s Transfer Prize – the Löhn Prize – in recognition of this development and transfer work.