Integration of a Structuring Concept for Vehicle Control Systems into the Software Development Process using UML Modelling Methods

The demand for more security, economy, and comfort as well as for a reduced environmental impact increases the importance of electronic components for vehicles. The development of such systems is determined by the requirement of an improved functionality and co-requisite the demand for limited costs. In order to fulfil these demands and taking into consideration the increase of complexity and the melting together to a car wide web, Bosch is developing a structuring concept called CARTRONIC^®. This concept is supposed to be open and neutral regarding automotive manufactures and suppliers.

The analysis of vehicle control systems via this method is based on formal rules for structuring and modelling. The function-related aspect of CARTRONIC^® was represented already at the SAE'98 World Congress. Furthermore the safety-related feature was introduced in more detail at the SAE'99 World Congress.

The result of the analysis is an object structure of logical components with defined interfaces. The mapping of these structure in the object oriented Unified Modelling Language (UML) completes the analysis phase of the software development. Thereby also dynamic aspects are considered. To reduce time and costs of the product development a continuous automated computer aided development process will be necessary.

The paper describes the process summarised above using an example out of a global view of the powertrain functionalities.