A REAL-TIME SIMULATION ENVIRONMENT FOR THE VERIFICATION OF AUTOMOTIVE ELECTRONIC CONTROLLER SOFTWARE

Electronic controllers have been applied to monitor and control a variety of automotive functions including engine operation, transmission shifting, wheel traction and system diagnostics. The increasing complexity of automotive controllers necessitates rigorous test capabilities to ensure that the software satisfies all design specifications. In this paper, a real time hardware-in-the-loop simulation environment will be presented for software verification. This development tool will enable the automated testing of controller software in the laboratory to ensure compliance with the design specifications. The laboratory hardware and system configuration will be discussed with emphasis on data acquisition techniques to gather time synchronized information from both the controller and the simulation computer. An overview of the library of mathematical models necessary to simulate various automotive dynamics will be presented to provide additional insight into the possible applications of this tool. Finally, several verification strategies will be presented for the open-loop and closed-loop testing of automotive controller software.