Driver assistance and active safety systems are taking big steps towards greater autonomy. As the complexity and criticality of the traffic situations in which active safety systems have to intervene increases, the validation process of those functions is likewise becoming more complex, demanding and cost-intensive. Real-world tests are particularly constrained due to the fact that the increasing amount of relevant traffic situations can only be evaluated to a limited extent or with a considerable investment of cost and effort. Therefore the objective was to develop an approach which addresses these challenges.

This paper presents a vehicle-in-the-loop (ViL) test method. In contrast to existing approaches, the idea is not to embed a real-world vehicle into a virtual test environment and to test it in a cleared outdoor area. The key element of this test method is to augment the real-world test environment with virtual scenarios, which are based on virtual sensor objects.

The presented ViL test method is able to significantly enhance the validation of active safety systems. It closes the gap between simulated and real-world tests and enables to efficiently and reproducibly test active safety systems within traffic scenarios that are too complex or too dangerous for real driving tests. Therefore, it provides a promising approach for balancing safety performance, cost, and vehicle integration considerations during all development stages.