Italdesign and Spirent collaborate to advance connected autonomous vehicle testing

PAIGNTON, UK, 30 May, 2018: Spirent Communications plc (LSE:SPT), the world leader in global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) testing solutions, today announced that it has been collaborating with Italdesign, the leading automotive design company, to create an integrated system for testing connected autonomous vehicles (CAVs) during their development.

The two companies have cooperated over the past six months to integrate different test systems into a single combined platform which can perform both hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) and software-in-the-loop (SIL) testing. This will help CAV developers to reduce their product development times with greater confidence in the positioning accuracy of their vehicles.

Due to the open architecture of dSPACE SCALEXIO and Spirent‘s GSS7000, several modelling and simulation solutions can be used in combination with these hardware platforms. In this project IPG CarMaker was used. By integrating these different systems, the platform can simulate positioning information, vehicle component and dynamics data and the traffic environment, all within real-world test scenarios, including the entire surrounding environment, in the virtual world.

“Conventional vehicles are driven thousands of miles during development, but this is not feasible for autonomous vehicles,” said Antonio Casu, CTO of Italdesign. “So we needed a new approach to R&D development testing that combined best-in-class components. By working with Spirent’s experts, we have created a system that will help to bring connected cars to market faster.”

“This platform will help accelerate CAV development significantly, as it combines industry-leading systems in different domains into one combined solution,” said Steve Hickling, Product Marketing Director of Spirent’s Positioning product unit. “Italdesign wanted the most realistic simulation to provide better customer experience, and our professional services team worked with Italdesign experts to create this system.”

Combining HIL and SIL components in the same system enables vehicle developers to improve the quality of testing. A simulation that combines different vehicle components, positioning information and traffic data provides significantly more realistic scenarios. HIL/SIL testing also reduces vehicle development times, as it allows simulated device testing to take place before prototypes have been built.

For more information on Spirent’s GNSS testing solutions, please visit our website, or to learn more about how to test devices for multi-GNSS, watch our latest video Testing Connected Autonomous Vehicles.