The ATD is used together with an RT3002 Inertial and GPS navigation system from OxTS, making it suitable for complete autonomous vehicle operation as well as path following capabilities. The RT3000 products measure the vehicle’s position, velocity, orientation, slip angle, acceleration and angular rates in real-time with high precision. Using feedback from the RT3002, the ATD can be used to perform path-following tests to within 2cm position accuracy. Both systems are designed for easy installation and can be quickly installed into any vehicle making it suitable for both long-term development as well as short-term benchmarking tests. The whole system is lightweight and compact enough to fit into any vehicle and is also easily transferable between vehicles which can save valuable time on the test track.
Robot driver for repeatable vehicle testing
Vehicle testing and benchmarking is often limited by the use of human test drivers. Some tests require high precision and repeatability over a series of tests which is often difficult to achieve even for experienced test drivers. In order to achieve more repeatable, reliable and precise test results, integrated robot drivers can be used. SEA Ltd. has designed and manufactured an Automated Test Driver (ATD) which incorporates their steering, braking and throttle robots.