Modeling and validation of a new generic virtual optical sensor for ADAS prototyping

In the early design stages of embedded applications, it becomes necessary to have a very realistic simulation environment dedicated to the prototyping and to the evaluation of these Advanced Driving Assistance Systems (ADAS). This Numerical simulation stage is gradually becoming a strong advantage in active safety. The use of realistic numerical models enabling to substitute real data by simulated data is primordial. For such virtual platform it is mandatory to provide physics-driven road environments, virtual embedded sensors, and physics-based vehicle models. In this publication, a generic solution for cameras modelling is presented. The use of this optical sensor simulation can easily and efficiently replace real camera test campaigns. This optical sensor is very important due to the great number of applications and algorithms based on it. The presented model involves a filter mechanism in order to reproduce, in the most realistic way, the behaviour of optical sensors. The main filters used in ADAS developments will be presented. Moreover, an optical analysis of these virtual sensors has been achieved allowing the confrontation between real and simulated results. An optical platform has been developed to characterize and validate any camera, permitting to measure their performances. By comparing real and simulated sensors with this platform, this paper demonstrates this virtual platform (Pro-SiVIC™) accurately reproduces real optical sensors´ behaviour.