Modern driver assistance systems and highly automated driving increase comfort, safety and environmental compatibility in road traffic. In order for vehicles to operate safely and smoothly in traffic, the interaction between humans and driver assistance systems must be investigated and criteria for the design, approval and standardization of automated driving must be established.

At the second Dresden Automotive Symposium (DDAS), representatives from science, authorities and the automotive industry met to discuss the latest developments in highly automated mobility and to present trends in technology, functionality, driving simulation and cyber-physical test methods for driver assistance systems and automated vehicles.

The official welcome by Prof. Georg Hirte, Vice Dean of the “Friedrich List" Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences and Dr. Jürgen Bönninger, lecturer at the Chair of Automotive Engineering, was followed by a varied program of lectures.

Safety in highly automated driving

Road safety was a particular focus of the conference. Prof. Günther Prokop, Head of the Chair of Automobile Engineering and initiator of the Dresden Automotive Symposium, spoke in his presentation about the current state of research on the methodology and standards of cyber-physical safety tests for automated driving.

The participants were given comprehensive insights into the general topic in a variety of specialist presentations:

• Road safety research in virtual reality (Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Markus Oeser, Federal Highway Research Institute)
• Virtualized and digitalized homologation of highly automated and data-driven vehicle functions (Alex Kraus, TÜV SÜD Mobility Division)
• “Automated driving - what do we need it for and why is it still taking time?” (Prof. Dr.-Ing. Steven Peters, Technical University of Darmstadt)
• ROADS, the world's most powerful immersive simulation tool (Florent Colombet, Renault Group)
• Safety-oriented development of assisted and automated driving functions (Dr. Sven Nitsche, BMW Group)
• Cyberphysical safety testing of automated driving - advances in methodology and standards (Prof. Dr.-Ing. Günther Prokop, Dresden University of Technology)

Dresden Driving Simulator (DDS)

The highlight of the conference was the presentation of the Dresden Driving Simulator, TU Dresden's highly immersive, self-driving driving simulator, at the test site in Freital.

The Dresden Driving Simulator (DDS) has been developed since 2019 at the Chair of Automotive Engineering together with AMST-Systemtechnik GmbH and with financial support from the BMDV and is the world's largest driving simulator that reproduces vehicle behavior almost realistically.

The highly immersive driving simulator is the first driving simulator that can generate sustained acceleration, which is made possible by its innovative, tire-bound motion platform. It closes a critical gap in simulation technology and is a technological milestone in the development and validation of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Highly Automated Driving (HAD).

The innovation of the Dresden Driving Simulator lies in its tire-based motion platform, which simulates realistic motion performance. Four pairs of steering and drive motors can accelerate the system's total mass of ~5 tons omnidirectionally at ~0.8 g. Powered by a built-in HV battery, the platform moves autonomously in an open space and communicates with a central control station via WiFi. The self-developed motion control system can therefore be used flexibly and requires a travel range of 70 × 70 m to achieve full motion quality.

Prof. Günther Prokop sees the Dresden Driving Simulator as an important milestone in the development of intelligent and safe vehicles:

“The Dresden Driving Simulator is proof of the power of collaboration and innovation. By working closely with AMST, we have succeeded in creating a solution that not only meets today's requirements, but also anticipates the future challenges of automotive development. The Dresden Driving Simulator will help engineers and researchers gain unprecedented insights into human-machine interaction, automated driving technologies and vehicle safety.”