As today’s vehicles are equipped with an ever-increasing amount of automated driving features, the need for accurate and repeatable safety testing is at an all-time high. Humanetics Innovative Solutions, Inc. has introduced a new Driving Robot platform that delivers smart performance with a very user-friendly design.
Gianmarco Macaro, Global Sales Engineer with Humanetics Austria GmbH, explains:
To ensure that complex vehicle systems are operating flawlessly, it’s best to remove the human element in favor of a driving robot. With our Driving Robot on board, a test vehicle can be navigated around the track autonomously with highly precise measurements of position, velocity, acceleration, angular rates, roll, pitch, slip angles and more.
Of course, with a robot, these movements can be repeated with absolute consistency as many times as necessary.
One of the breakthrough benefits of the Humanetics Driving Robot is its straightforward installation process which can be completed in just 30 minutes. The software has a convenient self-calibration feature that can process in under a minute.
We know from our experience this will offer a huge benefit to the teams that use it.
Jürgen Gugler, Technical Director Active Safety at Humanetics Austria GmbH, said “We’ve designed this system to be as simple, unobtrusive and adaptable as possible. Our system makes it easier and faster for test engineers to focus on completing their tests and processing the data. We know from our experience this will offer a huge benefit to the teams that use it.”
The ergonomic design of the Driving Robot leaves plenty of space for both passengers and third-party equipment. A central support stand eliminates the need for obstructions to the windshield, passenger-side window or seating area, allowing freedom of movement for the operator and a clear view out to the track. With the all-inclusive electronic component box in the rear seat, the front passenger seat can easily accommodate a second operator while the trunk remains free for other equipment.
The Humanetics Ultra-Flat Overrunable (UFO) platform seamlessly integrates with the Driving Robot as both products use the same software. Convenient features such as a library of pre-configured test scenarios and a return-to-start function are available. Up to nine UFOs and/or Driving Robots can be controlled, managed and analyzed from just one control computer – perfect for running complex ADAS and ADS scenarios.
Recently, Humanetics partnered with AVL in the development of a convenient software solution for evaluating active safety tests. The AVL Smart ADAS Analyzer tool simplifies the active safety testing workflow by post-processing test data and generating reports on-the-fly.
Markus Schmidl, Global Director Sales at Humanetics Austria GmbH, is truly excited about their new safety systems: “Our partnerships across the industry have enabled us to pioneer many of the industries’ great test equipment, so we’re excited that our collaboration with AVL, test laboratories and research facilities is delivering the best products to market to meet the needs of autonomous vehicle testing and is aiming towards the development of fully automated test devices."