Testing networked ECUs in a HIL based Integration Lab.

Modern vehicles use Electronic Control Units (ECU), connected via Controller Area Network (CAN) to perform functions. Many of these functions are distributed across several ECUs. This network interconnection enables the sharing of sensors, calculated information and actuators. As new functionality is added, the number of ECUs and their complexity increase. This paper describes the values and possibilities of a Hardware-ln-the-Loop (HIL) based Integration Lab, which enables a wide range of automatic tests to be performed on networked ECUs. The Integration Lab is the complex rebuild of a Scania truck/bus, containing the ECU superset, for connecting and testing networked ECUs. It involves more than 30 ECUs and eleven CAN networks. For a complete system, where the variant fauna is as extensive as the Scania vehicle, and continuously growing in size, the need for testing increases, especially regarding testing different variants and regression testing. Manual testing is then no longer an option, since the need for testing, concerning both quality and quantity, increases above the limit of where manual testing is applicable. A manual test lab is often a good way to start testing ECUs on an early stage of the development and is relatively easily and fast built. But in the long run the need for an automated lab becomes obvious. In the beginning the output of an automated lab is less than that of a manual lab. When the output level reaches that of a manual lab it continues to climb past this level since test scripts written earlier will continue to be run each test round. The Integration Lab demonstrates that dSPACE Simulator technology is capable of handling huge vehicle networks far in excess of that of passenger cars.