Electric Powertrain - Standardization of Adaptable Software in Loop System

The evolution of automotive Electronic Control Unit (ECU) technology brings the additional safety, comfort, and control to the vehicle. With an exponential increase in the complexity involved in modern-day ECU, it is very important to verify and validate robustness, functionality, and reliability of ECU software [1]. As of now, Hardware in loop [HIL] and Vehicle in Loop validations are well known software functional validation methods. However, these methods require physical setup, which can incur more cost and time during the development phase. In recent years, ECU virtualization gained attention for development and validation of automotive ECUs [2]. The goal is to minimize the effort on software testing. This paper focuses on virtualization of Electric Vehicle (EV) powertrain system using SIL approach. The objective is to provide an adaptable EV-virtualization environment for virtual-ECU (vECU) verification and validation. This paper focuses on standardization of SIL simulation setup by using modularized plant models. The term virtualization refers to a methodology of simulating automotive ECUs in a virtual environment (IT equipment) using SIL approach. In this virtual validation approach, ECU software stack is compiled and converted into an executable which can run on general purpose IT equipment with Windows or Linux environment. This executable is called a vECU. As there are no hardware dependencies, virtual ECUs provide the advantage of testing various scenarios in a simulated environment [3]. The demonstrated EV virtualized SIL solution could ultimately result in faster and more cost-effective software development cycle.