Quick Performance and Plausibility Tests with Radar Sensors

The Task

Quick performance and plausibility tests of a production-ready radar control unit for the efficient development of ADAS/AD applications (advanced driver assistance systems/autonomous driving).

The Challenge

During the development of application software for ADAS/AD, the behavior of the radar sensors (complete control unit including the signal processing software) must be known in defined conditions and especially in borderline cases. The cases in which objects are detected or not detected are fundamental for the development of the software that is based on them.

The Solution

With DARTS, quick performance and plausibility tests can be performed to reproduce the behavior of the sensor at specific speeds, or if the sensor detects objects with rapidly alternating distances or at specific detection angles. Depending on the defined echoes, it is possible to determine whether the respective objects were actually detected. On the basis of this, the next step is to test and verify the newly developed application software. In addition, this procedure is particularly useful in connection with component characterization for functional safety tests according to the ISO 26262 safety standard. Fast and automated tests can be used to determine the properties of the entire sensor channel:

• Antenna characteristics
• Sensitivity
• Resolution
• Separability
• Linearity

The test framework, which is easy to set up and use, offers excellent reproducibility.