Volvo Autonomous Solutions has announced a partnership with verification experts Foretellix to jointly create a Coverage Driven Verification system for autonomous driving solutions operating on both public roads and in confined areas, such as mines and quarries.
A statement from Volvo said the solution will enable massive scale testing of millions of different scenarios, which will validate autonomous vehicles and machines dealing with situations they might encounter within their specified Operational Design Domain (ODD).
The partnership will focus on providing high levels of safety and productivity of Volvo Autonomous Solution vehicles and machines. The ability of the solution to orchestrate large scale simulation and conduct the big data analysis required will lead to a substantial reduction in costs and time to market, ensuring faster operational readiness and the ability to safely scale up the system across multiple sites and ODDs, said Volvo.
The statement added that Foretellix is a “pioneer in the commercialisation of coverage-driven methodologies for automated driving systems verification”. The company has developed a “novel verification platform” that uses intelligent automation and big data analytics tools that coordinate and monitor millions of driving scenarios, to expose bugs and edge cases, including extreme ones.
Volvo Autonomous Solutions said it will jointly adapt Foretellix’s verification system for both highways and confined area applications, such as mines and quarries.
The two companies will use the Open Measurable Scenario Description Language (M-SDL) created by Foretellix. M-SDL simplifies the capture, reuse and sharing of scenarios, and can specify any mix of scenarios and operating conditions to identify previously unknown hazards.
Magnus Liljeqvist, global technology manager, Volvo Autonomous Solutions, said: “Volvo Autonomous Solutions believes in a collaborative verification concept, one that uses open standards. The partnership with Foretellix gives us access to the state-of-the-art verification tools and accelerating our time to market.
Ziv Binyamini, CEO and co-founder of Foretellix, added: “We are very proud to partner with Volvo Group. This partnership is a significant milestone for the industry as it is the first time that large scale Coverage Driven Verification will be used for verification of ADS in confined areas. Our partnership will combine the expertise of the two companies and set a new standard in the verification of automated driving systems, boosting both safety and productivity.”
In 2020 both companies conducted a successful pre-study that evaluated the Foretellix portfolio and its potential value in confined areas.
