Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and assisted and automated driving technologies are developing rapidly with more complex features constantly evolving and entering the market. These developments give rise to the need for physical testing throughout the development process and for legislative and consumer testing. With this comes the need for more advanced test devices that can be used in a multitude of scenarios to replicate a real vehicle throughout the entire manoeuvre up to the point of collision whilst maintaining a safe working environment.
The current car target test devices in use have generally fulfilled a specific purpose, for example, replicating the rear end of a vehicle. The target design and nature of their propulsion system limit manoeuvrability dictating broadly straight line or large radius turn capability only. To satisfy the future testing requirements of increasingly complex ADAS functionalities and assisted and automated driving technology for industry development, legislative and consumer test programmes NHTSA, Euro NCAP and IIHS collaborated to promote the concept and facilitate the evaluation and development of an internationally harmonised impactable 3D car target testing device.
The process comprised of the harmonising organisations liaising with test equipment suppliers and the automotive industry to evaluate candidate impactable 3D car target devices and set about a schedule of iterative development over a series of four international workshops. Industry feedback was that the DRI Soft Car 360 Fiesta offered the greatest potential for replicating a real vehicle because of its good geometrical and graphical representation and structural stability when travelling at speed. Development efforts focused chiefly on improving the radar and visual attributes of the device, culminating in ACEA and CLEPA members representing the automotive industry manufacturers and suppliers approving the final version of the DRI Soft Car 360 Fiesta as being acceptable for representing a real passenger car for automotive lidar, radar and camera sensor systems.
Subsequently, ISO has compiled a specification document for passenger vehicle 3D targets and Euro NCAP have committed to using a 3D car target meeting the ISO specification for active safety tests incorporated into the star rating from 2018 onwards.
A limitation of target requirements, the DRI Soft Car 360 Fiesta and the associated ISO specification is it leads to the device resembling a B segment hatchback vehicle. This type of vehicle is common amongst the European fleet, however other vehicle types such as pick-ups and saloons are prevalent in other developed territories. Although the body shape, size and ride height varies substantially between these vehicle types, they all possess certain similar features as a result of general vehicle design and construction and legislative requirements. Therefore, whilst not wholly representative of all the different vehicle types and constructions, the 3D car target as specified serves as a useful device for testing purposes harmonised across notable testing organisations around the world.