Virtualization for Verifying Functional Safety of Highly Automated Driving Using the Example of a Real ECU Project

Abstract

Validating and verifying highly automated driving (HAD) systems is a huge challenge due to their complexity, short development cycles, and legal safety requirements. The latter are defined by ISO 26262, a standard for functional safety of automotive electric/electronic systems. ECU virtualization is key to mastering this challenge because it allows to transfer testing tasks from the road to simulations on a large scale. If a data-driven approach is chosen for this purpose, comprehensive, loss-free, and time-synchronized recordings of measurement data are required, which must be gathered during extensive test drives. Huge data volumes are the result. These volumes need to be managed, categorized, and processed in a way that they can serve as an input for simulated test drives later. In case of a model-driven approach, the accuracy of the models of driver, vehicle and environment is crucial to obtain meaningful test results. During ECU virtualization, it is vital that the virtual ECU reproduces the behavior of the real ECU as closely as possible. ETAS ISOLAR-EVE can provide substantial benefit due to its way of virtualization. In the end, the value of virtualization depends on sufficient equivalence of the simulated system behavior with the real system behavior. If this can be proven, simulation and virtualization can minimize the need for expensive prototypes, test vehicles, and test drives, while at the same time satisfying legal requirements. In addition, virtualization allows to keep development cycles short and costs limited. The feasibility of this approach is shown using the example of a real ECU project, for which ETAS has provided tools and consulting.