Scenarios for Development, Test and Validation of Automated Vehicles

TL;DR

This paper discusses how scenario-based approaches can be systematically integrated into the ISO 26262 standard for developing safety-critical automated vehicle systems, addressing representation challenges and evolving scenarios through development phases.

Contribution

It presents requirements for scenario representation, proposes a consistent terminology, and demonstrates systematic evolution of scenarios aligned with ISO 26262 development phases.

Findings

Requirements for scenario representation are identified.

A consistent terminology for scenarios is proposed.

Methodology for evolving scenarios throughout development phases is demonstrated.

Abstract

The ISO 26262 standard from 2016 represents the state of the art for a safety-guided development of safety-critical electric/electronic vehicle systems. These vehicle systems include advanced driver assistance systems and vehicle guidance systems. The development process proposed in the ISO 26262 standard is based upon multiple V-models, and defines activities and work products for each process step. In many of these process steps, scenario based approaches can be applied to achieve the defined work products for the development of automated driving functions. To accomplish the work products of different process steps, scenarios have to focus on various aspects like a human understandable notation or a description via time-space variables. This leads to contradictory requirements regarding the level of detail and way of notation for the representation of scenarios. In this paper, the authors present requirements for the representation of scenarios in different process steps defined by the ISO 26262 standard, propose a consistent terminology based on prior publications for the identified levels of abstraction, and demonstrate how scenarios can be systematically evolved along the phases of the development process outlined in the ISO 26262 standard.