Automated System for Verification and Validation of End-of-Line Tests

This paper shows the results obtained from the implementation of an automated system for verification and validation of End-of-Line test executions in an automotive production plant environment. The objective is to assure all external tool test commands sent to the vehicle ECUs have been sent correctly and the answers from the respective ECUs to these commands are appropriate. The aim of this automation process is to increase security in the analysis and to spare time in the tests, considering that the activity is often done manually and repeatedly. With this purpose, a computer program was developed in open source language, allowing it to be executed on common market operating systems. The software was developed to allow the creation of specific test command lists for each vehicle model in a way that the lists can be edited and stored, according to project modifications in new vehicles. The software analyzes a CAN bus data acquisition containing all exchanged messages between the vehicle's electronic control units and the external test commands at the end of manufacturing process. After performing initial tests with this software on some vehicle models, a reduction on the time needed to perform the analysis was observed, being decreased from roughly 3 hours to approximately 2 minutes. On top of that, this gain in time scales with the amount of tests that need to be performed and the number of electronic control units that are under analysis. This way, a data analysis section that could demand one entire day could be executed in a few minutes. Considering all costs regarding engineering, the automation for this kind of analysis can represent a significant saving for companies in terms of time and money, even allowing data integration based on the results of analysis on a webserver in future implementations.