Performance testing for robotic systems

Abstract

Herein, a 'perception statistical performance model' (PSPM) for modelling a perception slice of a runtime stack for an autonomous vehicle or other robotic system may be used e.g. for safety/performance testing. A PSPM is configured to receive a computed perception ground truth, and determine from the perception ground truth, based on a set of learned parameters, a probabilistic perception uncertainty distribution, the parameters learned from a set of actual perception outputs generated using the perception slice to be modelled. A simulated scenario is run based on a time series of such perception outputs (with modelled perception errors), but can also be re-run based on perception ground truths directly (without perception errors). This can, for example, be way to ascertain whether perception error was the cause of some unexpected decision within the planner, by determining whether such a decision is also taken in the simulated scenario when perception error is “switched off”.