Technique to automatically discover simulation configurations for behaviors hard to test

A research team led by Fuyuki Ishikawa at the National Institute of Informatics (NII, Japan) has developed a technique to search automatically for simulation configurations that test various behaviors of automated driving systems. This research was conducted under the ERATO-MMSD project funded by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST, Japan). The proposed technique iterates trials on simulations using an optimization method called evolutionary computation so that it discovers simulation configurations that lead to specific features of driving behaviors such as high acceleration, deceleration, and steering operation. The outcome of this research was presented in ICST 2021, a flagship conference on software testing held during April 12-16 2021.