SIMPHERA: Bringing Speed and Simplicity to the Simulation and Validation of Autonomous Vehicles

For Continuous Testing on SIL and HIL Platforms. dSPACE has launched SIMPHERA -- a simulation and validation solution for automotive development.

The web-based, highly-scalable, cloud solution lets users perform the computation-intensive validation of functions for autonomous driving quickly and easily, supports collaboration of development teams that are distributed worldwide, and lets customers seamlessly integrate their applications. Reusable models, scenarios, tests, and interfaces allow for continuous testing on software-in-the-loop (SIL) and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) platforms.

The development of functions for highly automated and autonomous driving places increasingly strict requirements on the quality and safety of functions. This has resulted in a skyrocketing number of tests that need a large and scalable computing infrastructure. At the same time, virtual tests are frontloaded to earlier phases of development, where they are executed by internationally-distributed development teams. With this in mind, dSPACE has developed the scalable, web-based solution SIMPHERA, which meets all the performance and usability requirements.

Three Components: Prepare, Simulate, Validate
SIMPHERA supports developers and validation engineers by providing three components that are seamlessly integrated with each other. The first component, Prepare, gives users the tools they need to generate and modify all artifacts required for specific development or validation tasks. This can include proprietary simulation models that are needed for the development or validation tasks, such as vehicle, sensor, roads, traffic, and environment models or scenarios.

In the Simulate component, the prepared models and scenarios are used for interactive simulations. The users can check the desired algorithm behavior with a range of visualization and measurement functions.

The functions of the third component, Validate, help the users perform scenario-based testing on a large scale. Intelligent variations of parameters in a scenario can turn a handful of logical scenarios into a plethora of specific test cases. The test cases can then be rapidly processed and analyzed in more detail.

Wide Field of Application up to HIL Testing
The initial release of SIMPHERA is focused on the provision of validation solutions for functions for autonomous driving, scenario-based testing, and SIL testing. Reusable models, scenarios, tests, and interfaces allow for a seamless transition to automated tests on HIL platforms. SIMPHERA therefore, supports traceability in troubleshooting, lowers costs, and accelerates development and homologation.

“SIMPHERA will make life easier for developers in all phases of development and validation — from the initial idea of an algorithm to the release test of an ECU. By providing this integrated solution, we not only accelerate development but also make it more efficient, thereby, increasing our customers’ return on investment,” said Tino Schulze, Executive Vice President, Automated Driving & Software Solutions at dSPACE GmbH.

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