Towards nondestructive testing of pre-crash systems in a HIL setup

Abstract

Recently, the developments in the field of ADA systems shifted from comfort oriented systems to safety oriented systems. Consequently, the complexity of testing those systems increased. This leads to a demand for reproducible, efficient and safe testing methods for ADA systems in general, and pre-crash systems in particular. A method for pre-crash systems evaluation is presented, involving TNO's Vehicle Hardware-inthe-Loop facility (VeHIL) and its Crash Lab. This method, called VeHIL/Pre-crash, aims to support the development and verification of pre-crash systems, increasing the level of reproducibility, effectiveness and safety of the testing process. To this end, a test vehicle, positioned on a roller bench, is placed in a simulated traffic environment. In order to provide the test vehicle's environment sensor input, one of the simulated traffic participants is represented by a rail guided target vehicle, which is stopped by crumple tubes. Although the realization of this setup is not straightforward due to practical aspects such as high decelerations of the target and the challenge to establish a realistic sensory input in a confined environment, it is considered a promising development allowing for nondestructive testing of pre-crash systems in a hardwarein-the-loop setup. © 2008 IEEE.