openMDM® Framework provides the basis for a test data management with a bright future

The development of software-controlled vehicle functions, in which modern environmental sensors provide important information on the driving situation, requires a high number of test drives on the test track and in road traffic. Due to the indispensable video documentation, enormous amounts of data are accumulated in the test drives.

In order to better keep track of the increasing complexity of data management, the experts in charge of a big German automobile manufacturer in the middle of 2009 decided on the use of the openMDM® framework.

With the support of the specialists from Peak Solution, initially a subject-specific application model was designed, which, within a very short time – exclusively through customizing – was implemented in the openMDM® framework.

In this solution, today different driving catalogues are defined with representative driving scenarios and made available for the test vehicles. During the test drives, the ADTF software framework (Automotive Data and Time-Triggered Framework) synchronously records all data relevant to the vehicle function.

Via a special software interface (the “loading ramp”), data are transferred from there to the measurement data management system and stored in a structured way, along with descriptive information (“metadata”), e.g. about the test vehicle, driving maneuvers, driving conditions, measurement hardware, vehicle software, etc.

At present, the solution already contains thousands of test drives, including the accompanying metadata. The software versions used in the test drives are managed and documented in parallel to the solution in the software version management system MKS. Links in the solution of data structures ensure that the software is correctly assigned to the test data.

Through the use of the openMDM® framework, those responsible at automobile manufacturer were able to establish, at reasonable expense, a future-proof data management system for the documentation of test drives in the field of driving assistance and integral safety. Test data and metadata, but also the software used to generate the test data, can be stored in the solution in large amounts, securely and in a structured, and above all easily retrievable way.