Abstract
ABSTRACT Systems of Systems are a specific type of Complex System affecting many fields including biology, sociology, engineering and military whereby new systems are composed of a number of individual systems with their own levels of autonomy. Automotive Electrical Systems are in fact system of systems with accompanying issues of emergent behaviour that can manifest itself as quality problems.
A key characteristic for successful implementation of System of Systems is robustness. Robustness concerns the resilience of a system to maintain an appropriate level of function during and after variations or disturbances. It is the ability to cope with variation rather than relying on preventing it occurring.
This paper describes the modelling approach taken to develop novel robustness models for distributed automotive electronics systems. These models were initially developed at a generic level in MATLAB Simulink & Stateflow to be able to capture both continuous and state based behaviour. Results are presented illustrating the information that can be derived from the simulations including ECU status, current draw and availability of distributed functions during disturbances.
Subsequently these models have been targeted at a specific application of the initialisation of a MOST infotainment system. The objective of this modelling was to be able to simulate the initialisation process to be able to understand the critical parameters to the robustness and consistency of the process and to be able to investigate enhanced and alternative strategies. It was found that while a high degree of effort may be required to get models which embody critical features of real systems; these can give useful results and an ability to explore design alternatives which would not be feasible with the physical system.
Keywords: Robustness, Modelling, Simulation, Automotive, Electronics