SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ENHANCED EMULATION OF CONNECTED VEHICLE APPLICATIONS

• US 20170024500A1
• Filed: 07/21/2016
• Published: 01/26/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 07/21/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tata Elxsi Limited
• Original Assignee: Tata Elxsi Limited
• Inventors: SEBASTIAN, Gnanaprakash, PADMANABAN, Karthikeyan, BISWAS, Biswajit, RAJAPPA, Rajagopalan
• Granted Patent: US 10,303,817 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 17/007 Wheeled or endless-tracked vehicles G01M17/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3664 Environments for testing or debugging software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3696 Methods or tools to render software testable
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2111/02 CAD in a network environment, e.g. collaborative CAD or distributed simulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/20 Design optimisation, verification or simulation optimisation, verification or simulation of circuit designs G06F30/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/046 involving vehicles, e.g. floating traffic data [FTD] or vehicle traffic prediction

Abstract

An emulator for a test scenario corresponding to a connected vehicle application is presented. The emulator includes a test bed for testing a device under test (DUT) communicatively coupled to emulated intelligent transportation system (ITS) stations. The test bed also includes a processor configured to emulate the test scenario based on user-defined configuration parameters that define a behavior of the DUT and each of the emulated ITS stations during simulated events in the test scenario. The processor further includes a mobility engine configured to generate and periodically update one or more mobility parameters corresponding to the DUT and the emulated ITS stations based on the corresponding configuration parameters. The test bed further includes a channel emulator, a controller area network (CAN) simulator, and a global navigational satellite system (GNSS) simulator integrated into a single test bed for holistically emulating the test scenario and validating a desired functionality of the DUT.

Claims

1. An emulator for emulating a test scenario corresponding to a connected vehicle application, comprising:

a test bed configured to test a device under test (DUT) that is communicatively coupled to one or more emulated intelligent transportation system (ITS) stations, wherein the DUT and each of the emulated ITS stations comprise a vehicle on-board unit (OBU) or an infrastructure unit (IU), and wherein the test bed further comprises;

a processor configured to execute one or more instructions to emulate a test scenario comprising one or more simulated events involving the DUT and at least one of the emulated ITS stations, the processor comprising;

a mobility engine configured to generate and periodically update one or more mobility parameters corresponding to the DUT and each of the emulated ITS stations for the simulated events based on corresponding configuration parameters, wherein the configuration parameters define a behavior of the DUT and each of the emulated ITS stations during one or more simulated events in the test scenario;

a channel emulator configured to generate one or more channel models for emulating one or more wireless channel conditions between the DUT and one or more of the emulated ITS stations based on the corresponding mobility parameters;

a controller area network (CAN) simulator configured to emulate one or more CAN signals that are transmitted and received by one or more internal components corresponding to one or more of the DUT and the emulated ITS stations based on the corresponding mobility parameters;

a global navigational satellite system (GNSS) emulator configured to generate one or more GNSS signals for simulating mobility of one or more of the DUT and the ITS stations based on the corresponding mobility parameters;

a transceiver operatively coupled to the processor and configured to generate and transmit one or more periodic messages between the DUT and one or more of the emulated ITS stations and one or more asynchronous messages between the DUT and one or more of the emulated ITS stations upon occurrence of one of the simulated events;

wherein the processor is configured to validate a desired functionality of the DUT by determining if one or more of the periodic messages and the asynchronous messages are generated by the DUT as expected within a defined time limit.

2. The emulator of claim 1, further comprising a memory communicatively coupled at least to the processor for storing the configuration parameters, the configuration parameters comprising at least one of a station identifier (ID), a speed, an acceleration, a deceleration, one or more vehicle profile parameters, a confidence ratio for each of the vehicle profile parameters, and route information of an emulated OBU, and a station ID, one or more station profile parameters, a confidence ratio for each of the station profile parameters, a position, a station type, a warning type of an emulated infrastructure unit, station context information corresponding to the plurality of emulated OBUs and IUs, DUT station context information, and a set of instructions for testing the DUT.

3. The emulator of claim 2, wherein the memory stores the configurations parameters defined for the test scenario in a scenario configuration file, and wherein the processor is configured to playback the scenario configuration file for validating a bug fix, a subsequent test of the DUT, or a combination thereof.

4. The emulator of claim 1, wherein the GNSS simulator is configured to receive the configuration parameters for generating varying GNSS signals for controlling a position of one or more of the DUT, simulating movement along real road topologies comprising at least one of a straight road, a cross road, and a curved road, simulating desired atmospheric conditions, simulating obstructions, or combinations thereof.

5. The emulator of claim 1, wherein the mobility engine is configured to:

periodically update the mobility parameters using path information in the configuration parameters to generate a desired position, a desired direction of travel, and a desired velocity for each of the plurality of emulated ITS stations and the DUT, generate throttle, breaking, and steering information for each of the emulated ITS stations and the DUT based on the desired position, the desired direction of travel; and

the desired velocity;

generate a simulated position, velocity, acceleration, brake status, indicator light status, steering angle, and yaw rate for each of the emulated ITS stations and the DUT based on the throttle, breaking, and steering information.

6. The emulator of claim 5, wherein the channel emulator receives one or more channel model parameters for computing the channel models for emulating one or more wireless channel conditions between the DUT and one or more of the emulated ITS stations using the configuration parameters, the position, and the velocity of each of the emulated ITS stations and the DUT, and wherein the channel models comprise one or more of a fading channel model, log-distance path loss model, Doppler shift model, and Ray tracing model.

7. The emulator of claim 1, wherein channel emulator is configured to emulate the same channel conditions between the DUT and each of the emulated ITS stations, or to configure different channel conditions between the DUT and each of the emulated ITS stations based on the corresponding mobility parameters.

8. The emulator of claim 1, wherein the processor further comprises an emulation manager configured to synchronously control the mobility engine to generate the mobility parameters for the DUT and each of the emulated ITS stations, the GNSS emulator for generating varying GNSS signals to simulate one or more of atmospheric, mobility, and spatial topology conditions defined in the test scenario, the CAN simulator for generating CAN signals for simulating an internal vehicle dynamics of the DUT defined in the test scenario, and the channel emulator for emulating the wireless channel conditions defined in the test scenario.

9. The emulator of claim 1, wherein the transceiver is configured to:

transmit the periodic messages for the DUT in a time interleaved manner using a single transceiver such that the DUT is configured to perceive the periodic messages to have originated from a plurality of vehicles, a plurality of infrastructure units, or a combination thereof; and

generate and transmit the asynchronous messages upon occurrence of the simulated events involving the DUT or any of the emulated ITS stations.

10. The emulator of claim 1, wherein the periodic messages and the asynchronous messages comprise one or more of a direct short range communication message, a cooperative awareness message, a decentralized environmental notification message, a signal phase and timing message, a basic safety message, and a map messages, and wherein the transceiver is configured to generate the periodic messages and the asynchronous messages in any message format defined for any geography.

11. The emulator of claim 1, wherein the test scenario comprises at least one of a blind spot warning scenario, a do not pass warning scenario, a forward collision warning scenario, an emergency brake application scenario, a road hazard detection scenario, an advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) support scenario, a cellular connected vehicle application scenario, non-line-of-sight scenarios in which ADAS sensors are ineffective, a protocol conformance test scenario for the DUT, an interoperability test scenario for testing a plurality of different devices under test.

12. The emulator of claim 1, further comprising a user interface device used for configuring the test parameters for the test scenario, the user interface device comprising:

a mapping service used for configuring real road topologies for the test scenarios and a graphical map based visualization of the test scenario;

a scenario configuration interface for defining test configuration parameters for defining a number of the participating ITS stations, one or more vehicle profile parameters and corresponding confidence ratios, one or more station profile parameters and corresponding confidence ratios, one or more channel models to be used for communications between each of the emulated ITS stations and the DUT, and one or more of atmospheric and spatial topology effects to be applied on the GNSS signal of the DUT;

a runtime information interface for displaying dynamic runtime information corresponding to the DUT and the emulated ITS stations ; and

a dashboard for visualizing a dashboard of a vehicle associated with the DUT, the periodic messages, the asynchronous messages, and a sequence of the simulated events in the test scenario.

13. The emulator of claim 1, wherein the processor further comprises:

a logger configured to log information originating from the DUT and the emulated ITS stations;

a test report generation module configured to generate a test report based on the logged information, wherein the test report includes at least one of a test pass status, a test fail status, a message latency value , a miss detection probability value, a false detection probability value, and a bit error rate (BER) value, and

wherein the processor is configured to validate the desired functionality of the DUT by determining if one or more of the periodic messages, asynchronous messages and CAN signals are generated by the DUT as expected within the defined time limit based on the test report.

14. The emulator of claim 1, wherein the processor further comprises a customized security module configured to emulate the ITS stations such that authorized ITS stations are emulated using a valid digital certificate and unauthorized ITS stations are emulated using an invalid digital certificate.

15. The emulator of claim 1, wherein the emulator is integrated with a hardware in the loop systems for system level testing of one or more of the DUT associated with a vehicle, one or more other control units within the vehicle, and a combination of the DUT with the other control units.

16. The emulator of claim 1, wherein the emulator conforms to one or more of:

an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Wireless Access in Vehicular Environments (WAVE) standard, a European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) Intelligent Transport Systems G5 standard, a country-specific standard, and a region specific standard.

17. A method for emulating a test scenario corresponding to a connected vehicle application, comprising:

receiving one or more configuration parameters that define a behavior of a DUT and one or more emulated ITS stations during one or more simulated events involving the DUT and at least one of the emulated ITS stations in the test scenario, wherein the DUT is communicatively coupled to the emulated ITS stations, and wherein the DUT and each of the emulated ITS stations comprise a vehicle on-board unit (OBU) or an infrastructure unit;

generating and periodically updating one or more mobility parameters corresponding to the DUT and each of the emulated ITS stations for the simulated events by a mobility engine based on corresponding configuration parameters;

generating one or more channels for emulating one or more wireless channel conditions between the DUT and one or more of the emulated ITS stations by a channel emulator based on the corresponding mobility parameters;

emulating one or more CAN signals that are transmitted and received by one or more internal components corresponding to one or more of the DUT and the emulated ITS stations by a CAN simulator based on the corresponding mobility parameters;

generating GNSS signals for simulating mobility of one or more of the DUT by a GNSS simulator based on the corresponding mobility parameters, wherein the mobility engine, the channel emulator, the CAN simulator, and the GNSS emulator integrated within a single test bed in an emulator are synchronously controlled to generate the mobility parameters, the channel models, the CAN signals, and the GNSS signals, respectively;

applying the corresponding mobility parameters, the channel models, the CAN signals, and the GNSS signals to the DUT to holistically emulate and execute the test scenario;

generating and transmitting one or more periodic messages for the DUT from one or more of the emulated ITS stations and one or more asynchronous messages between the DUT and one or more of the emulated ITS stations upon occurrence of one of the simulated events during execution of the test scenario; and

validating a desired functionality of the DUT by determining if one or more of the periodic messages, the asynchronous messages and the CAN signals are generated by the DUT as expected within a defined time limit.