This paper describes Virtual-Hardware-In-the-Loop Simulation
(VHILS), a new validation method for real-time control systems.
HILS integrates multiple-technology domain simulators and uses
no actual hardware components. Target software in binary code
formats are executed with CoMET™, a virtual processor platform
and physical layer signals are emulated with MATLAB®/Simulink®.
Thus, VHILS can replace HILS, which is widely used for control
software validation today.
The VHILS was applied to the development of adaptive cruise
control system (ACCS), and driver maneuvering, vehicle dynamics,
microcontroller operation and CAN communication were modeled. The
data exchange between multi-domain simulation and communication
modeling were identified to be the primary causes of longer
computational time. By carefully designing the simulator interfaces
and the CAN model, we built an entire ACCS simulation that showed
accurate match with experimental results and yielded one-third of
the real environment's turnaround time.
The VHILS was also applied to real-time software code debugging
as an alternative approach to hardware-based In-Circuit Emulators
(ICEs). The virtual real-time debugger (VRD) helps software
engineers to examine run-time behavior of control codes and
investigate cause-and-effect relationships of software defections
by synchronizing information from multiple-domain components and
displaying them together.
To speed up the VHILS operation, Virtual Validation (V₂) Cloud
System, a parallel execution framework, is introduced. It
automatically allocates VHILS tasks to massive computer resources
and executes a large number of validation test cases simultaneously
by using the modern cloud computing technologies.
