Electronic control system manufactures within the off-highway industry are aggressively upgrading their embedded software development processes to include simulation, rapid prototyping, and Hardware-in-loop testing (HIL). However, software life cycle concerns are not always considered during process revolutions such as these, even though most project managers agree that the majority of software costs accrue during maintenance.
This paper proposes the use of automated implementation and unit test tools to generate production code and unit test vectors from a graphical representation of the ECU model used during simulation and prototyping. These automated tools not only improve development time but, more importantly, save on maintenance and reuse costs.
Another proposal is made herein regarding the use of a new rapid prototyping environment for more accurately accounting for production microcontroller constraints during control algorithm design. This reduces the number of expensive process iterations that arise due to the detection of unachievable requirements in the later portions of the control system test cycle.