Four German technology companies with particular expertise in the field of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) have collaborated to form a ‘one-stop testing shop’ to accelerate development programs for fully autonomous vehicles.
The four companies, Konrad Technologies, SET, SEA Datentechnik, and MeasX & Co, have formed ADAS IIT-Innovation In Test, making use of their individual areas of expertise in the fields of ADAS, sensor fusion, hardware in the loop (HiL), V2X (vehicle-to-everything) communication, GNSS simulation, and data management, to provide a one-stop testing solution for fully autonomous vehicle development programs. With the ADAS IIT collaboration, the four technology companies offer a unique approach for ADAS testing, joining their knowledge and skills to develop highly scalable future-proof ADAS test solutions based on the standardized National Instruments (NI) platforms.
The ADAS IIT group is the first to present cost-optimized consolidated ADAS test systems for virtual test driving. The unique NI platform-based concept will help bring autonomous vehicles to the market safer and faster than expected. The companies agreed to collaborate on the research and development of a seamless one-stop solution designed to make autonomous driving even more predictable and safe; a solution providing a significantly more robust and capable architecture across the automotive industry that simplifies and shortens development times for auto makers.
The ADAS IIT aims to be the premier partnership with research and development infrastructure put in place to achieve complete ADAS test solutions in a lab environment, replacing many current needs for validation and assessment in ‘real-life’ situations. The group will work on the next steps toward a complete test of fully autonomous vehicles in a virtual environment, from design to development, implementation, validation to production and testing services around the globe. The companies’ fields are:
• Konrad Technologies – ADAS Sensor Fusion, including high-frequency units and optics;
• SET– semiconductor reliability, HiL, and function test systems;
• SEA – V2X communication and GNSS applications;
• MeasX – acquisition, organization, management, and evaluation of measured data.
“We are pleased to see our open platform and ecosystem empower the four ADAS IIT engineering companies to address the increasing testing complexity of highly integrated, fully automated ADAS test solutions,”, said Rahman Jamal, global technology and marketing director at National Instruments.
“The combination of our flexible software and modular hardware platforms, and the ADAS IIT’s deep technical expertise, ensures that our common customers will get the cutting-edge technology they need to speed up the research and development of autonomous vehicles.”
Frank Heidemann, SET’s managing director, noted, “As real test drives are highly time-consuming, require a lot of test driver resources, and cannot be repeated to 100%, virtual test drives are inevitable to test today’s sensors and sensor fusion electronic control units (ECU) for future autonomous driving.”
Konrad Technologies’ MD, Michael Konrad, commented, “A combination of Sensor Fusion with HiL, V2X, and highly efficient data management systems will go a long way to set very high standards in the automotive industry, and I am very excited that ADAS IIT is at the forefront of these technological innovations.”
