Software blueprint via keystroke
The more functions are combined in automotive control units, the more difficult and complex is their integration. A new IAV platform allows for the inclusion to be carried out by suppliers in two days – completely unique in the market. The next step is to roll out the tool as a web service.
«It’s very similar to building a house: one has to place pipes and cable correctly when planning, so that water, electricity and data can flow later.»
— Head of Department Vehicle Software Solutions at IAV
Two days instead of six weeks
Software developers use AUTOSAR (Automotive Open System Architecture), a version of the XML description language that is specifically adapted to the needs of the automotive industry. Extensive documents illustrate, among other things, which functions exist, which interfaces they connect, how quickly certain functions must be executed and how they should be separated from each other.
A powerful domain controller quickly brings together more than 100 megabytes of pure text that developers must create manually. This can take four to six weeks and will need to be tackled again for each new software integration level. To reduce this effort significantly, IAV has developed an AUTOSAR tool chain for a customer. It relieves engineers of the manual work involved in the creation of AUTOSAR documents and reduces the processing time from several weeks to just two days.
“We are reducing the effort by over 90 percent,” estimates Reichelt. In the first step, the tool receives the information provided by the suppliers on the individual functions. Typical formats are text documents, Excel files, CSV files or other AUTOSAR documents. The tool can also be adapted to other formats.
Webbased platform planned
This is followed by a check of the input data: Which functions talk to each other? In what format must the data be transferred? Are the desired data available? If the tool detects a problem here, it will be reported immediately and can be corrected within a short period of time. In the next step, the input data is transferred to a special model and stored in a database.
“We store the input data in versioned form,” reports Reichelt. “The model enables data separation and integration, so that one can work on two variants in parallel and merge them later.” In addition, customerspecific features can be stored directly in the data model via an expansion interface. In the end, the IAV tool automatically generates an AUTOSAR document that describes the software architecture – in any output format.
Since 2020, the new tool has been in use and has exceeded the expectations of the customer. “On the one hand, it is to be used for another control unit, on the other hand, there are also requests for the new solution from other departments of our customer,” says Reichelt.
«No wonder: Our tool is unique, there is nothing comparable on the market.»
— Head of Department Vehicle Software Solutions at IAV
IAV is currently developing the tool further: In the future it will be available as a web-based platform, so that all parties involved can upload new documents about their functions at any time. New AUTOSAR documents could then even be generated within a few hours. Independently of this, IAV is working on providing additional tools for the AUTOSAR development process as part of its own development.
You can read all the articles in the new Inware here: https://www.iav.com/en/news/open-source-and-strawberries/
Download: https://www.iav.com/app/uploads/2023/05/Inware_02_en_2023.pdf
