AB Dynamics, an automotive test system supplier, has released a software update designed to enable OEMs and test houses to automate the testing and validation of the latest industry-standard active safety protocols by all the major regulatory and consumer bodies.
The software update, available from the company’s ‘Track Applications Suite’, includes more than 400 new tests added to its ‘Special Groups’ library of pre-defined test scenarios. Combined with the company’s driving robots, ADAS targets and other track test equipment, the Special Groups enable test engineers to automate the creation, set-up, variation, execution and verification of industry-standard active safety protocols.
This latest update includes the 2024 CNCAP protocols (237 tests), the EU General Safety Regulation (60 tests), due to come into force in July, and comprehensive coverage of UNECE protocols (120 tests), including the most recent heavy vehicle scenarios.
“To sell their vehicles globally, manufacturers must conduct and pass hundreds of active safety tests for various regulatory and consumer bodies, for every single model they produce,” said Joel Blyth, lead application engineer at AB Dynamics. “This can be very time and cost-intensive, but our end-to-end test solution automates a lot of this work. The test scenario database alone saves engineers substantial development time on every vehicle, just in generating new scenarios and developing validation strategies.”
The Track Applications Suite contains the various software applications necessary to manage testing and control the robot-driven vehicles under test, and the ADAS targets and motion platforms required for active safety testing. It provides a single software ecosystem to fully define, execute and verify test scenarios.
According to AB Dynamics the software calculates the location, trajectory and speed of the vehicle under test and other test objects, with the scenarios automatically reconfigured to account for different vehicle widths and lengths to precisely control the collision points as per the test requirements.
The Scenario Generator tool can be used to overlay the paths and visualise the expected collision points of each object prior to starting the test. Efficiency is further enhanced by the Post Processor application, which provides an instant pass/fail result. Each test in the library has been tested by AB Dynamics, both in simulation and through on-track testing.
“Many of our customers, including NCAP-affiliated laboratories, use our Track Applications Suite as a first level of verification,” continued Blyth. “We also use the same software and resulting data to support submissions of our hardware products for Euro NCAP approval.”
The Track Applications Suite update also includes a new feature called ‘Move to Point’. This feature automatically repositions test objects at the end of the test to a new starting point. This is useful in helping engineers to safely move test vehicles and ADAS targets to different areas of the track, and improves efficiency by ensuring the objects are automatically in position for the next test.
