Critical Scenario Identification Concept: The Role of the Scenario-in-the-Loop Approach in Future Automotive Testing

Innovative testing and validation methods are prerequisites concerning Connected, Cooperative, and Automated Mobility (CCAM), as the high number of cooperating participants and concurrent processes critically increase the probability of adverse safety and security incidents. The proposed new approaches deal with this increasing complexity of not currently having generally accepted validation mechanisms. The paper introduces a novel, mathematical model based, scenario identification methodology, facilitating the selection of critical road vehicle traffic scenarios, taking into account different testing objectives, such as maximizing the safety risk of the analyzed system. The presented results verify that applying specific decision models and quantifiable indicators related to the system elements of highly automated mobility systems can significantly contribute to the systematic identification of unsafe corner cases in connected and cooperative autonomous systems.