System and method for modeling advanced automotive safety systems

Abstract

A system and methods are disclosed for providing an integrated software development environment for the design, verification, and validation of advanced automotive safety systems. The system allows automotive software to be developed on a host computer using a collection of computer programs running simultaneously as processes and synchronized by a central process. The software disclosed uses separate synchronized processes, permitting signals from disparate sources to be generated by a simulation running on the host computer or from actual sensors and data bus signals coming from and going to actual vehicle hardware which is connected to their bus counterparts in the host computer on a real-time basis. The methods provide a data model that first extends the capabilities of the physical data model and then translates, gates, optimizes, fuses, filters, and manages the physical representation of the logical model into a state estimation of the situation around the vehicle.

Description

RELATED FILINGS DATA[0001]The present application is a continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12 / 776,137, filed May 7, 2010 that claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61 / 176,681, filed May 8, 2009 and to Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61 / 177,015, filed May 11, 2009 which are all incorporated by reference in their entirety.[0002]This application further incorporates by reference U.S. patents:[0003]U.S. Pat. No. 6,629,033 Issued Sep. 30, 2003 Titled—OPEN COMMUNICATION SYSTEM FOR REAL-TIME MULTIPROCESSOR APPLICATIONS;[0004]U.S. Pat. No. 6,771,208 Issued Aug. 3, 2004 Titled—MULTI SENSOR SYSTEM;[0005]U.S. Pat. No. 7,146,260 Issued Dec. 5, 2006 Titled—METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DYNAMIC CONFIGURATION OF MULTIPROCESSOR SYSTEM;[0006]U.S. Pat. No. 6,792,351 Issued Sep. 14, 2004 Titled—METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MULTI-VEHICLE COMMUNICATION;[0007]U.S. Pat. No. 6,778,073 Issued Aug. 17, 2004 Titled—METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MANAGING AUDIO DEVIC...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0035]The data-modeling framework of APAT enables a user to define a data model or version of SACore by using a series of graphical user interfaces (GUI). APAT and SACore provide functionality that physical databases cannot provide by dynamically translating the asynchronous data generated into a corresponding state estimation. Users can utilize the GUI to modify the data model by adjusting expected error, rate or core operation, and the system output is automatically adjusted to accommodate the changes. The APAT system and methods shields both the application developer and the sensor supplier from the complexities, limitations and costs of single sensor systems.

[0036]Therefore methods need to be developed to allow automotive system designers the ability to characterize numerous sensor types and sensor suppliers within a specific type as to the actual capability of the sensor in terms of measured variances in the reports. Second the methods need to allow the designers the freedom to place the sensor on the vehicle with other sensors of like type or different types; these may have coincident, mostly coincident, or non-coincident fields of view. Further these methods need to allow the designer the ability to specify tolerances of the dynamic system, such as target maneuver expectations. It would be desirable to the system designer if methods could be presented that allowed all system variables to be extracted into a single file allowing the designer the flexibility of changing any variable in a complex system of variables and structured filters without the tedious need of hand coding the changes. In an n-scalable system, wherein the number of sensors, and number of sensor reports are variable, the resulting identity matrix or unit matrix of size n is represented by the n-by-n square matrix, where n-by-n matrices are used to represent linear transformations from an n-dimensional vector space to itself. Defining and coding a 2-by 2 square matrix then changing the square matrix to a 3-by-3 or n-by-n is tedious and probably beyond the skill set of the automotive system designer, therefore methods are presented as the objects of the invention that allow rapid prototyping and auto-code generation for the development, modeling, implementation and testing of advanced automotive safety systems.

[0040]Another object of the invention is to describe a method for reducing processing complexity, when desired, by setting the number of filters implemented on any pairings of sensors, by identifying number of possibilities, with subsequent values set as noise for each option chosen.

Problems solved by technology

Unfortunately, the complete state is not always observable.

This is not well understood or currently implemented in the transportation industry; the approach understood and practiced is logical decisions in linear and deterministic systems.

If use cases require higher confidences in measurements, instrument specifications are tightened resulting in the undesired effect of cost and schedule increases.

The environment we live and operate in is neither linear nor deterministic; use cases are infinite; and the perverse variability of the targets and potential maneuvers cannot be modeled.

Timing errors can induce more error in the system than a bad measurement.

However, there are no systematic and rigorous methodologies for designing procedures to be used in advanced safety systems for the transportation industry.

This is currently viewed as a serious shortcoming, since these high-risk and complex systems employ procedures and action sequences that can and do impact life or death results.

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