MMRHP: A Miniature Mixed-Reality HIL Platform for Auditable Closed-Loop Evaluation

TL;DR

This paper introduces MMRHP, a miniature mixed-reality HIL platform designed for rigorous, reproducible quantitative evaluation of autonomous driving systems, supporting a systematic testing process aligned with safety standards.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel miniature HIL platform with a unified measurement core and a structured three-phase testing process for autonomous vehicle validation.

Findings

Achieved spatial accuracy of 10.27 mm RMSE.

Maintained a stable closed-loop latency of approximately 45 ms.

Identified a critical performance cliff at 40 ms latency in an Autoware case study.

Abstract

Validation of autonomous driving systems requires a trade-off between test fidelity, cost, and scalability. While miniaturized hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) platforms have emerged as a promising solution, a systematic framework supporting rigorous quantitative analysis is generally lacking, limiting their value as scientific evaluation tools. To address this challenge, we propose MMRHP, a miniature mixed-reality HIL platform that elevates miniaturized testing from functional demonstration to rigorous, reproducible quantitative analysis. The core contributions are threefold. First, we propose a systematic three-phase testing process oriented toward the Safety of the Intended Functionality(SOTIF)standard, providing actionable guidance for identifying the performance limits and triggering conditions of otherwise correctly functioning systems. Second, we design and implement a HIL platform centered around a unified spatiotemporal measurement core to support this process, ensuring consistent and traceable quantification of physical motion and system timing. Finally, we demonstrate the effectiveness of this solution through comprehensive experiments. The platform itself was first validated, achieving a spatial accuracy of 10.27 mm RMSE and a stable closed-loop latency baseline of approximately 45 ms. Subsequently, an in-depth Autoware case study leveraged this validated platform to quantify its performance baseline and identify a critical performance cliff at an injected latency of 40 ms. This work shows that a structured process, combined with a platform offering a unified spatio-temporal benchmark, enables reproducible, interpretable, and quantitative closed-loop evaluation of autonomous driving systems.