An Approach for Robust System Testing the Event Data Recorder in the Context of a Passive Safety System

Abstract

As long as road accidents happen, passive safety systems like the airbag control unit are an essential part of the whole automotive safety system. Within the airbag control unit, the event data recorder (EDR) is an integrated function. Recent developments in legislation show that an increasing number of EDR-related regulations are being introduced. They are mainly focusing on data recording, crash-data retrieval, and some of them define testing aspects. In the system testing of an airbag control unit with a focus on the event data recorder, the question arises of how to deal with the fact that real-world crash events are not “straightforward” but arbitrary and do not follow any rules and restrictions. The purpose of this work is to develop a robust test approach to these conditions—giving a tester the possibility to extend the test depth considering the common test design techniques and testing principles. The applied methodology is the use of optimization algorithms in an automated test environment. With this, the tester can steer the test execution in a predefined way with minimal interaction. The application of the developed test method automatically creates a set of test data which fulfill the predefined conditions by the user. The generated results show that a high number of test data are created at and close to the target condition. Consequently, this test approach provides an extension to the common test design techniques with regard to how test input data can be created, and especially how automated test data creation and test execution can be realized.