The newly developed SprayMaker is designed to simulate the influence of rain and dispersed surface water on ADAS vehicle sensors / The mobile applicable system is compatible to all standard passenger cars as well as Euro NCAP and NHTSA vehicle targets
Munich, 21. Feb. 2020 – The safety of autonomous vehicles and driver assistance systems is closely linked to the performance of the sensors used. The driving assistants are dependent on the accurate recording of the environment. The weather has the greatest disturbing influence on the environmental measurement via camera, radar and lidar. Using the SprayMaker from MESSRING, a realistic and reproducible rainy weather situation can be simulated during driving to test ADAS sensors.
Simple testing with MESSRING SprayMaker
The SprayMaker is easy and fast to mount on almost any vehicle – including the Euro NCAP and NHTSA Vehicle Targets – with a belt. The water nozzles thus attached to the rear and side of the car are connected to two 100l water tanks strapped to the seats of the car via a hose and pump system. The SprayMaker is switched on and off with the supplied remote control. Two water nozzle kits are available, which allow different flow rates of 1l/min or 2l/min per nozzle. With a total of twelve nozzles, a continuous spray of eight or 16 minutes can be generated. Depending on the choice of nozzle, the carrier vehicle equipped with the SprayMaker sprays either a fine spray mist or a stronger spray cloud. The sensors are influenced by the water on the sensor surface and at the same time, the spray mist itself makes it difficult to detect the rear of the vehicle and the surrounding area.
Challenge Active Safety Testing
“We have discovered that the future systems of active safety such as object detection, pedestrian protection, accident detection and others can be severely limited by the weather-related performance of the sensors”, says Dr. Igor Doric, Managing Director of MESSRING Active Safety GmbH and explains “For the further development of the sensors and thus the future active safety of vehicles the SprayMaker now offers an effective test tool for all suppliers and developers of sensors and driver assistance systems”.