Application Story

In future, establishing standardized processes in automotive development for the Validation and release of automated driving functions will be necessary to be able to provide a generally accepted proof of safety. IPG Automotive promoted this necessity in the PEGASUS research project (project for the establishment of generally accepted quality criteria, tools and methods as well as scenarios and situations for the release of highly-automated driving functions). This project initiated a general discussion on Validation processes within the German automotive industry [1].

Simulation as a part of the developed Validation methodology, complemented by proving ground and field tests, is already being used to varying degrees in the industry. However, due to the use of solutions from different providers, the results are not necessarily comparable. PEGASUS fostered a common understanding of scenario and road definitions (ASAM OpenSCENARIO and ASAM OpenDRIVE) as well as sensor model interfaces (Open Simulation Interface, ASAM OSI) [2].

This laid the groundwork to use simple scenarios and sensor models across companies, departments and tools within the project. Prototypical implementations were successful and accelerated the transfer of the mentioned formats to ASAM e.V., where the standardization was to take place.

Before the launch of the PEGASUS project, standardized, independent formats for scenario and road description did not exist. It was therefore not possible to create a tool-independent and machine-readable scenario catalog. In fact, there were already OpenDRIVE and OpenSCENARIO initiatives with different levels of development, but the rights of the formats belonged to a competitor. An adaptation across all tool developers was therefore not feasible. Moreover, the many existing dialects and interpretations of the OpenDRIVE format made sharing existing road models more difficult.

The PEGASUS research project offered a platform for open discussions and encouraged experiments: Easy scenarios were described in different abstraction levels to finally define them as a concrete scenario in the OpenSCENARIO format. The scenario and the road network included in the OpenDRIVE file were imported and translated into CarMaker formats.  Using this approach, the comparison of interpretations between the project partners could be tested.

Especially the interpretation of the OpenSCENARIO format was challenging during the project, because in contrast to the OpenDRIVE format, it did not yet have a longstanding testing record. Over the next years, OpenSCENARIO will therefore undergo a maturing process and will be developed further with the support of ASAM e.V. and its member companies.

Furthermore, in the beginning, there were no established Standard sensor model interfaces with regard to the transmitted information and the packaging. The thereby caused high diversity of models in productive use resulted in considerable efforts in model building and the integration of sensor models into the Simulation environment. For that reason, exchanging and comparing models from different suppliers was complicated.

A proposal submitted by the BMW Group [3], the Open Simulation Interface, was then intensively discussed and developed with sensor and tool manufacturers as well as OEMs. The goal was to create a format for the integration of sensor models and driving functions that is independent of sensor technology and Simulation tools. Within the scope of PEGASUS, identical sensor models were used for the first time in different Simulation tools without adapting the model interfaces. IPG Automotive implemented the ability to provide ideal environmental information for this purpose: OSI:GroundTruth as well as OSI Sensor Model Packaging (OSMP) extended the already existing Functional Mock-up Interfaces (FMI) in CarMaker.

Object-based, phenomenological sensor models that model the physical effects on the basis of ideal object lists from the environment Simulation could therefore be integrated into the Simulation platform. So far, only object-based sensor models could guarantee comparability between different Simulation environments with this approach. Models based on geometry using ray tracing or rasterization techniques require standardized 3D models and formats as well as material definitions. This topic could not be discussed in depth in the context of PEGASUS.