AUTOSAR Development (Part 4): Early Testing of AUTOSAR-based ECUs and Subsystems

ABSTRACT

One of the AUTOSAR standard's key points is to enable reuse of application SW, which leads to shorter development time and enables early validation of software components in the virtual environment. But, when it comes to validation in the physical environment, connecting to real sensors/actuators, and communicating with real ECUs, the availability of the ECU HW is often a limiting factor, especially given the fact that the HW development is typically initiated by an ECU supplier company only after being nominated for a project. In addition to the virtual validation of software components provided by Mentor Graphics' VSI tool, an interesting and fully compatible alternative or next step is to use a rapid prototyping ECU such as the MBtech Virtual AUTOSAR Platform (VAP): a highly configurable system based on industry PC standards and equipped with AUTOSAR BSW and tooling from Mentor. The VAP can be used to validate the complete ECU's functionality, from its application SW via the AUTOSAR BSW to real sensor/actuator or communication interfaces. In this session we will see how the VAP prototype ECU can be used for proof of concept, validating ECU configurations and integration with real ECUs.