Dynamic Virtual Environment for Vehicle Sensor Testing

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Solution Overview

Problem

Developers face challenges in testing and validating synthetic sensors across various vehicle configurations without access to real vehicle hardware and live data, due to differences in hardware and software configurations among vehicles.

Innovation Solution

A preconfigured virtual environment is provided, allowing developers to test and validate synthetic sensors in a cloud-based or network server setting, which mimics specific vehicle configurations and provides realistic test signals, enabling seamless development and validation without physical access to vehicles.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If developers test on real vehicle hardware, then testing accuracy and validation reliability are improved, but accessibility and ease of operation deteriorate due to limited access to real vehicles

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvevalidation reliabilityVSAvoidaccessibility to test environment
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The patent creates virtual copies of real vehicle hardware environments through virtual machine instances that replicate sensor configurations, operating systems, and hardware architectures. These virtual environments provide faithful reproductions of target vehicle platforms, enabling developers to test synthetic sensors with the same reliability as real hardware while maintaining remote accessibility through network connections.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #26Copying

Solution Approach 2:

The patent introduces a cloud-based virtualization platform as an intermediary between developers and real vehicle hardware. This intermediary layer provides virtual machine instances that mediate testing activities, allowing developers to interact with simulated vehicle environments without direct physical access to actual vehicles, thus resolving the contradiction between validation reliability and accessibility.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Reliability

If developers manually configure test environments for each vehicle configuration, then testing completeness is improved, but time consumption and complexity increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvetesting completenessVSAvoidconfiguration time
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent pre-configures virtual machine templates with common vehicle configurations, sensor setups, and software environments before testing begins. These pre-prepared templates include predetermined hardware configurations, operating system images, and sensor driver stacks that can be rapidly instantiated, eliminating the need for manual configuration during testing while maintaining comprehensive coverage of different vehicle platforms.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The patent creates universal virtual machine templates that can serve multiple testing purposes across different vehicle configurations. These templates are designed to be adaptable and configurable for various sensor types and vehicle architectures, allowing a single infrastructure to support comprehensive testing across diverse platforms without requiring separate manual setup for each configuration.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

3Reliability

If comprehensive vehicle configurations are simulated, then testing coverage is improved, but computational resources and system complexity increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvetesting coverageVSAvoidsystem complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the comprehensive testing infrastructure into modular virtual machine instances, each representing a specific vehicle configuration or sensor type. This segmentation allows the system to manage complexity by dividing the overall testing environment into independent, manageable units that can be selectively instantiated based on testing needs, rather than maintaining one monolithic complex system.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent implements dynamic provisioning of virtual machine instances based on testing requirements. The system can dynamically allocate and deallocate computational resources, creating virtual environments only when needed for specific testing scenarios and removing them when no longer required. This dynamic approach allows comprehensive testing coverage while optimizing resource utilization and managing system complexity through on-demand instantiation.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #15Dynamics

Data Source

PatentUS20240320137A1Method and system for dynamic and automatic development configuration for a vehicle
Publication Date: 2024.09.26 BLACKBERRY LTD
  • US20240320137A1 patent drawing
  • US20240320137A1 patent drawing
  • US20240320137A1 patent drawing

AI summary

A method at a computing device, the method including receiving an indication of a desired test environment; accessing a configuration catalog to obtain configuration information for the desired test environment; configuring a test node based on the configuration information; obtaining test signals for the desired test environment; and performing testing on the configured test node using the test signals.