Abstract
KEYWORDS – Integrated Electric Parking Brake, VDA, AUTOSAR, Virtual ECU, Validation
ABSTRACT Nowadays, many car makers are trying to reduce the number of ECUs in the vehicle for the purpose of reducing vehicle weight and saving energy consumption as well as cost reduction. However, there are a few suppliers that could provide all the system which OEMs require. That means the collaboration among suppliers, even among competitors in the market, is inevitable. It will be a challenge for the suppliers in the global business.
The VDA Recommendation 305-100 for the integration of Electric Parking Brakes control into ESC Control Units, which published by the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) on May 2013, is one of the latest industry efforts to realize the current market needs into the real business. The standard defines not only the functional interfaces between ESC software and EPB, exactly said PBC (Parking Brake Control) software, but also the typical functional safety requirements including safety goals and test procedure between ESC supplier and EPB supplier. Nonetheless, in the perspective of EPB supplier, it was a big challenge to develop and validate the application software (PBC) without real ECU before ESC supplier provide real one, even before ESC supplier nominated for the program.
In this paper, the experience of PBC software development and validation only through the virtual ECU will be introduced. At first, the summary of VDA Recommendation 305-100 will be introduced briefly. Secondly, challenges while developing PBC SW without real ECU will be explained and the approaches – for example, the implementation of PBC software which based on the current industry de-facto software standard AUTOSAR R4.0.3 etc. – to overcome such constraints will be followed. In our experience, AUTOSAR as well as VDA standard is one of the key enablers to be successful in the project. Finally, the Lessons-Learned such as correlation issues between virtual ECU and real ECU etc. and feedback on the VDA Recommendation 305-100 to facilitate the spread of its utilization in the global EPB market.