VVMethods – Legally compliant and efficient release of autonomous vehicles

© Bosch

The testing and validation of vehicle systems plays a key role in the introduction of fully automated and autonomous driving functions. Together with project participants from industry and research, DLR is developing legally compliant, time- and cost-efficient verification and validation methods.

How can it be proven that an automated driving vehicle is safe? What gives us certainty that the driving function will make the right decision? How safe is safe enough? In the BMWi-funded cooperation project Pegasus, which came to an end in June 2019, the DLR Institute of Transportation Systems worked with partners from research and industry to develop quality standards and methods for safeguarding highly automated vehicles so that they can be used reliably on the roads in the future. While the research focus of Pegasus was on the motorway context, the follow-up project VVM is now focusing on the development of safe test procedures for urban traffic scenarios.

The VVM project aims to make efficient testability available for the entire development process of fully automated and autonomous road vehicles in urban traffic.

VVMethods should deliver the following key results:

  • Definition of a process framework for the verification of safety
  • Provision of methods and tools for verification and validation

In the project, DLR is mainly concerned with the use of simulation methods and their role in the verification and validation process. To this end, the simulations are being adapted for various process steps and applied as examples. Particular attention is paid to proving that the simulations deliver reliable results.

Project title and -website:
VVM

Duration:
07/2019 to 12/2023

Contracting authority:
Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi)

Project participants:
BMW AG (Leader)
Robert Bosch GmbH (Leader)
AUDI AG
AVL Deutschland GmbH
Federal Highway Research Institute
Continental Teves AG & Co. oHG
Daimler AG
German Aerospace Center (DLR)
DLR Institute of Transportation Systems
dSPACE GmbH
Ford Werke GmbH
Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft e.V
FZI Research Center for Information Technology
RWT Aachen University
Opel Automobile GmbH
PROSTEP AG
TU Braunschweig
TU Darmstadt
TÜV SÜD Auto Service GmbH
Valeo GmbH
Visteon Electronics Germany GmbH
Volkswagen AG
ZF Friedrichshafen AG

VV Methods Safety Assurance Position Paper

1.6 MB | PDF

In the paper, the authors present an overall methodology that can be used to demonstrate the safety of automated vehicles and explain the central thesis of the VVM project.

This project is managed by the department:

Research Verification and Validation

The department's task is simulation-based verification, validation, and approval of vehicles and infrastructure in the transportation system.

Contact

Lennart Asbach

Head of Department
German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Institute of Transportation Systems
Research Verification and Validation
Lilienthalplatz 7, 38108 Braunschweig