Towards a Consistent Terminology for Scenario-Based Development and Test Approaches for Automated Vehicles: A Proposal for a Structuring Framework, a Basic Vocabulary, and its Application

For the market launch of automated vehicles, ensuring and validating their safe behavior are central challenges. As possible solutions, scenario-based development and test approaches for automated vehicles are pursued, e.g., in the research projects aFAS, ENABLE-S3, PEGASUS, SET Level, and VVMethoden. A consistent terminology that contains at least the most important terms (e.g., scenario, test specification, and test case) is an essential prerequisite for researching, applying, and standardizing scenario-based development and test approaches for automated vehicles. Currently, there is no consistent and agreed-upon terminology. In our experience, this often leads to misunderstandings. This publication aims to contribute to a consistent terminology for scenario-based development and test approaches for automated vehicles. We propose a framework to structure this terminology. Additionally, we propose a basic vocabulary within this framework by identifying and describing terms that we consider important for an overview of such scenario-based development and test approaches. To visualize the relationships between the proposed terms and to resolve contradictions and inaccuracies within the terminology, we visualize the proposed terms with UML diagrams.