To master the growing complexity of software in modern vehicles, automotive OEMs are increasingly developing their electronic
systems based on AUTOSAR. The standards created by this development partnership simplify development processes
and make ECU software reusable. Since its introduction in 2004, this innovative and pioneering technology has been tested
in many evaluation projects and is now entering an implementation phase in production ECUs. AUTOSAR standard software covers the current state of technology and is undergoing continual advanced development in new releases.
Dual-clutch transmission technology not only offers significant improvement in driver convenience and ride comfort at moderate added cost. At the same time, it also delivers excellent fuel economy. The design of a production version of the world’s first ‘dry system’ dual-clutch transmission represented a special challenge for the ECU`s electronics. Frequent flashing of the ECU is necessary in the development process, and this requires the use of rational flash methods and high-performance tools that are up to the task.
High flexibility of gateway ECUs is achieved by the post-build principle, since it permits a later configuration at any time – even in late development phases during ECU integration or even in the field. This results in universally deployable ECUs. Based on the AUTOSAR standard, a method is presented here that describes how the gateway functionality in the finished ECU can be adapted to new requirements.
Reprogramming of modern flash chips has become a commonplace process in development and production. In practice, the jobs are exceptionally diverse – depending on the ECU, department, manufacturer and supplier – so preparation, management and the flash process itself all involve considerable effort. Therefore, this article first surveys the purely technical terrain in which flash solutions occur. Afterwards, the perspective is expanded to cover process-oriented jobs and rational approaches to solutions.
At MAN Nutzfahrzeuge AG an integrated approach was applied
to managing all engineering data generated in the E/E
development process and its subprocesses. The goal is to
further improve the efficiency and quality of development,
despite the growing complexity of electronic systems. MAN
Nutzfahrzeuge AG developed and introduced an integrated
development database for this purpose, which is based on
the eASEE Tool Suite from the Vector company: The MAN
Common Engineering Data Backbone.
Testing certainly plays an important role in the automotive
electronics development process today, but there is
unexploited potential for more efficient and automated
testing execution in the future by utilizing the right
strategies, ideas and tools. This article analyzes the
current state of the technology, clarifies problematic
interactions occurring in practice, and demonstrates that
tools are already available today for solving concrete
project tasks related to testing in an elegant and
efficient way.
During functional tests a modern and flexible test system must control the I/O interfaces of the ECU. Test cases make different demands on the connection and the operation of sensors and actuators, as well as the signalling or errors and measurement of signals. Beside the different challenges to the test system this article describes also a new, compact test hardware of the Vector Informatik GmbH.
Turbochargers help engines, especially those with comparatively small displacements, to develop considerable torque and a high level of driving dynamics. Today’s engine charging systems must flexibly adapt to engine speed and momentary power requirements; therefore, turbocharger control requires careful optimization. For the automotive supplier BorgWarner Turbo Systems, use of the CANape software tool has produced enormous streamlining potential in developing demo vehicles and hardware equipment for road durability tests.
More and more engineers are nowadays confronted with new challenges and tools required by the introduction of FlexRay as a bus system for automotive applications. This article shows how engineers successfully meet the challenges of analyzing, simulating, and testing FlexRay ECUs and networks using CANoe.FlexRay.
The FlexRay bus will increasingly come into use in new vehicle generations. This opens up the possibility of efficiently execute necessary software updates of the ECUs via FlexRay. To achieve shorter programming times, and finally to save costs, system designers and developers have to pay attention to the configuration of both the software and the FlexRay schedule.
With the introduction of the FlexRay bus, automotive electronics is on the verge of a great transformation. The move away from event-driven control and towards time-triggered control will place stricter requirements on the timing behavior of the application. This creates new challenges for development and testing.
FlexRay is going into production for the first time. It will appear on the BMW X5, which was presented to the public at the Paris Auto Salon in August 2006, and it can be purchased in Germany beginning in March of this year. Within its active chassis system, FlexRay provides for secure and reliable data transmission between the central control module and the four satellite ECUs, one located at each shock absorber. This article traces FlexRay’s path into the automobile and explains the key principles of
FlexRay bus technology.
In just a very short time the LIN bus has established itself as the technology of choice for simple and cost-effective data exchange in the automobile. Today, many automotive OEMs are relying on LIN to transmit non-critical signals in the body/convenience area. The following article points out the reasons for the victory of LIN (Local Interconnect Network) in the automobile and explains the underlying technology.
Simple and error-free startup of the communication
cluster as well as high system stability over long service
life are required to keep the complexity of FlexRay
networks in vehicles under control. The Network Management
from Vector Informatik GmbH proved its production-
ready maturity in rigorous testing at the engineering
subsidiary of a German automotive OEM.
Mix of Individual Software and AUTOSAR Components in Vehicle Electronics: ECU development in the motor vehicle is evolving rapidly. This article sheds light on one important aspect: The introduction of standardized basic software defined by the AUTOSAR development partnership. If AUTOSAR software components are added to the overall architecture in a stepwise and differentiated manner, this assures quality enhancements.
The development and introduction of new diagnostic concepts
and diagnostic solutions offer significant potential to automotive OEMs and suppliers for realizing efficiency gains and quality improvement. Growing complexity in automotive electronics can only be mastered – technically and economically – by use of nonproprietary standards such as ODX, close cooperation and powerful tools. This article offers an overview of topics relevant to the past, present and future of automotive diagnostics as presented and discussed in October 2006 before an audience of
350 participants at the Vector Congress in Stuttgart.
The vision of cross-platform use of ECUs, universal communication capability, interchangeability and reusability of software modules beyond vehicle and OEM boundaries is fast approaching reality.
Until production maturity is reached, however, automotive OEMs and suppliers still need to overcome a number of challenges. Two presentations, one by Volkswagen and the other by Bosch, given
at the Vector Congress in October 2006 serve to explain this.
Standardized software components will help in mastering the growing complexity of the interplay of all software components in an ECU. The ways in which today’s ECU software should be developed for FlexRay were presented at the Vector FlexRay Symposium in March of this year.
In March 2007, over 200 developers met in Stuttgart for the
FlexRay Symposium sponsored by Vector Informatik. Automotive OEMs and suppliers outlined their successes to
date, experiences in system integration and concepts for
future implementations.
Anyone who has participated in winter sports at one time or another is familiar with them: The slope groomers that tirelessly prepare the ski slopes and convey goods to mountain stations or transport injured persons safely down to the valley. Not only do they embody a special species of all-terrain track vehicles, they are also the product of genuine high-performance efforts in Heavy-duty vehicle construction. Vehicle electronics play a crucial role in realizing the incredible capabilities of these machines. This technical article offers insights into the vehicle technology, development process and development tools of the latest generation of PistenBully vehicles from the Kässbohrer Company.
More and more electronic functions for safety and convenience are finding their way into the modern automobile. Since the number of ECUs is being held in check, however, this means that the complexity of individual devices must grow to compensate. Making an important contribution toward rationalization of the development process for these distributed systems is the XCP communication protocol, whose main tasks include measurement and calibration of ECU-internal variables at runtime. A tremendous advantage of this successor protocol to CCP is its independence of the physical transport layer.
The development of ECU-specific software is taking a new
path. The AUTOSAR development partnership has defined a
software architecture resulting in standardized base
software to be used as a foundation for development of
reusable applications. This places special requirements on
semiconductor producers.
The automotive industry is making great efforts to improve
software quality. In this context the “Embedded Software
Components” business area of Vector Informatik GmbH
successfully completed a process improvement project. One
requirement of the project specification was to attain SPICE Level 3 for all relevant processes. This article summarizes the methods and experiences from practice.
The relentless pace of globalization has brought growing competitive pressure to bear on automotive OEMs and suppliers, which in turn leads to one innovative offensive after another. Electronics plays a decisive role here: Increasingly complex electronic systems provide for a high level of safety and comfort in car driving. The CAN (Controller Area Network) serial bus system makes a crucial contribution here with to its specific properties. It assures reliable data exchange even under harsh environmental conditions for example. This technical article is intended to serve as an introduction to CAN technology.
In the future continual advances in the development of automotive electronics will place significant new demands on underlying base technologies. In spite of growing functionality
automotive OEMs must keep costs under control; one way to achieve this is by limiting the number of ECUs in a car. At the
same time extended safety and reliability concepts will be key areas of interest. In light of the challenges and multitude of electronic components, powerful tools for development, data management and transfer of software modules into a control module’s flash memory will continue to gain in importance.
Anyone who has participated in winter sports at one time or another is familiar with them: The slope groomers that tirelessly
prepare the ski slopes and transport goods to mountain stations or injured persons safely down to the valley. They not only embody a special species of all-terrain track vehicle, they also deliver the experience of true high performance. Vehicle electronics play a decisive role in the incredible capabilities of these machines. Without electronics neither functionality nor safety nor any other significant innovations would be conceivable. This technical article offers insights into the vehicle technology, development process and development tools of the latest generation of PistenBully vehicles from the Kässbohrer Company.
Vector Consulting, with its eASEE product, is offering a complete tool environment for managing and controlling engineering business processes. The software is capable of organizing all
of the processes and product data for software and electronic systems over their entire product life cycle. ATZ elektronik magazine spoke with Dr. Thomas Beck, CEO of Vector Informatik and Vector Consulting GmbH, about development
processes in developing automotive electronics and about the advantages of eASEE (pronounced: "easy").
"Cooperate on standards – compete on implementation",
that is how the guiding principle of the Autosar standardization
initiative reads. A long harboured wish of the automotive
industry is now on an ideal path toward becoming
a reality. The industry is prepared to implement the necessary
paradigm change to accomplish this.
The diagnostic exchange format ODX has been implemented
successfully in a number of pilot projects. For the first
time now it has also been used productively in a multi-OEM,
vehicle project. Experience to date has been promising.
Practice has shown that the standard offers sufficient
latitude for individual variation, but due to its
complexity it places enormous requirements on the tools
used.
FlexRay is either introduced for its deterministic behavior or for its quick data transfer, depending on the application. Currently, its use in safety-related applications only plays a subordinate role. Criteria to be considered in the decision of which operating system to use together with FlexRay, besides deterministic behavior and
performance, include memory protection and time monitoring. This article explains what is important in selecting the operating system and presents specific solutions offered by Vector Informatik in the context of AUTOSAR.
CANopen has become an accepted standard for cost-effective networking of components for many types of applications. Systems networked by CANopen offer ample flexibility at well-defined costs. Nevertheless, as with any other new technology the initial implementation of such a system is always associated with high technical risks for the system producer. What potential challenges must a developer of CANopen systems overcome? A majority of the development tasks within the framework of the V-Model can be ascribed to the areas of verification and validation. Comprehensive testing conducted as early as possible allows the developer to nearly exclude errors that might otherwise be discovered too late.
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