ANSYS 2019 R3 Expands Autonomous Vehicles Solution

Latest Release Delivers Innovations in Sensors, Virtual Environments and AI Simulation

With release of ANSYS Autonomy, part of ANSYS 2019 R3, ANSYS enables engineers to develop safer autonomous vehicles (AVs) through advanced closed-loop scenario simulation, automated driving and control software development, functional safety analysis, and sensor, camera, lidar, and radar simulation.

As fully autonomous vehicles edge closer to real-world deployment, operating safely becomes more critical than ever. AVs require rigorous testing in complex environments and under variable conditions. Physical testing would require billions of miles of driving or flying a time-consuming, cost-prohibitive, approach. Using simulation to virtually test AVs is the only viable option for validating systems safety and accelerating AV development. From sensors to virtual environments to artificial intelligence (AI), ANSYS 2019 R3 includes robust offerings that speed the safe development and deployment of AVs on the road and in the air.

“In ANSYS 2019 R3, ANSYS Autonomy integrates ANSYS flagship products into a comprehensive virtual testing and development environment for AVs,” said Eric Bantegnie, vice president and general manager, systems business unit at ANSYS. “Combined with ANSYS’ comprehensive partner ecosystem, our leading-edge solutions enable customers to accelerate the future of safe autonomous driving.”

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Among many product and feature enhancements across the ANSYS product portfolio, ANSYS 2019 R3 extends the ANSYS SCADE family of products with the launch of ANSYS SCADE Vision, which enables customers to evaluate the safety of AI-based perception software systems and reduce object detection defects in autonomous systems. ANSYS SCADE Vision drastically reduces the cost of AV perception software testing, enhances safety and drives high value from AV data. ANSYS SCADE Vision is powered by Edge Case Research Hologram technology.

With this new release, ANSYS SCADE Suite enhances important features required for developing the most advanced automotive systems and the embedded software that controls these systems for autonomous vehicles. ANSYS 2019 R3 includes improved AUTOSAR support in SCADE for ISO 26262 certified code generation and software component design.

In addition to ANSYS SCADE Vision and ANSYS SCADE Suite, ANSYS 2019 R3 includes multiple tool enhancements to ANSYS VRXPERIENCE Driving Simulator powered by SCANeR, ANSYS VRXPERIENCE HMI, ANSYS^® SPEOS^TM and ANSYS HFSS^TM SBR+.

Updates to ANSYS VRXPERIENCE provide innovations in scenario simulation, sensors, sound simulations and virtual reality (VR); the software also now offers SPEOS Live Preview. ANSYS VRXPERIENCE HMI now allows users to run and interact with embedded software in VR as a software-in-the-loop model. These updates to the ANSYS VRXPERIENCE product family enable developers to virtually simulate and validate numerous scenarios without the cost of physical prototypes or physical road miles.

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ANSYS SPEOS now enables users to see optical simulation in a new light. While ANSYS SPEOS continues to extend optical simulation into ANSYS’ Multiphysics platform, SPEOS Live Preview helps designers accelerate their design innovation thanks to GPU acceleration, enabling quick design iterations to improve design optimization and robustness. ANSYS 2019 R3 also includes the SPEOS Road Library for Sensors Simulation, a comprehensive retro-reflecting materials database.

“ANSYS SPEOS provides early insights into the optical performance of our designs. It allows for fast iterations on multiple virtual prototypes to optimize the appearance and performance of vehicle lamps, earlier in the product design phase,” said Hiroaki Yachi, Chief, Toyota Customizing & Development. “With SPEOS Live Preview, powered by GPU technology, our engineers can run real-time optical simulations and explore alternative virtual prototypes — reducing costs and development times.”

In ANSYS 2019 R3, ANSYS electromagnetics suite includes new features for engineers tackling complex autonomous vehicle engineering challenges. ANSYS HFSS SBR+ now includes creeping wave physics – an industry first – that delivers greater accuracy for predicting radar cross section (RCS) of large targets with curvatures — enabling engineers to achieve a more precise RCS reading of objects including shadow regions. Additionally, Accelerated Doppler Processing simulation technology added to ANSYS HFSS SBR+ revolutionizes the way automotive companies validate the safety and performance of radar systems in autonomous vehicles empowering engineers to test vastly more traffic scenarios than would ever be possible with physical road tests.

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ANSYS also introduces ANSYS Minerva. Powered by Aras, ANSYS Minerva is a knowledge management product for critical simulation expertise. ANSYS Minerva improves productivity and maximizes business value from existing engineering technology investments by providing model-based system engineering, simulation process and data management, lifecycle traceability, process integration, design optimization and simulation-driven data science capabilities. ANSYS Minerva is critical for managing the volume of simulation data required for testing complex systems, such as AVs.

The ANSYS semiconductor portfolio of power efficiency, power integrity and reliability solutions achieve ISO 26262 certifications to enable automotive integrated circuit designers to meet rigorous safety requirements for AV applications. Auto chip makers can leverage ANSYS PowerArtist™, the ANSYS RedHawk™ family and ANSYS^® Totem™ multiphysics simulations for all ISO 26262 safety-related projects for any ASIL level. ANSYS RedHawk-SC continues to deliver power integrity solutions for leading semiconductor process technologies for automotive and 5G applications.

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