Abstract:

This paper presents an efficient approach for design validation of automotive instruments because of low efficiency of manual testing nowadays.The approach combines hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) and machine vision technologies.The system developed can simulate vehicle operations in real-time basis and inspect visual display of the instrument with an intelligent camera.A host computer controls the whole operation process and conducts fully-automated design validation testing.The simulation models and the image processing algorithms are introduced.Experiments are performed for validation of the functionalities of the light status,the needle pointer status and the character display in a laboratory testing platform,verifying the accuracy and stability of test results and showing the practical value of this system.

Key words: validation testing;hardware in the loop;modeling and simulation;machine vision