focus on electronics

focus on
electronics
Edited by Kevin Jost

Scania simplifies electronics testing

How do you validate the performance of
multiple electronic control units (ECUs)
carrying out multiple functions across
multiple communication buses? The
unavoidable answer is to conduct indepth testing.
Heavy-truck and -bus manufacturer
Scania configures its vehicles with as
many as 33 different onboard controllers
to carry out such system functions as
brake management, all-wheel drive, crash

To make testing of its heavy

vehicles networked electronic
control units (ECUs) more
efficient and systematic, Scania
developed a real-time integration
lab that includes five full-size
hardware-in-the-loop simulators
and associated ECU racks for
mounting test devices.

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OCTOBER 2007

aei

safety, engine management, and climate

control. The volume of testing that is required to evaluate such complex vehicle
functionality has made manual testing a
virtual impossibility and automated testing a necessity.
To implement a more efficient and
systematic means of testing networked
ECUs, Scania developed a real-time integration lab. The ECU testing process, formerly done manually, is now carried out
through the use of an automated testing
system.
In 2005, Scania began performing
tests at the lab, which is a virtual rebuild
of a Scania truck/bus electronic system. It
includes more than 30 networked ECUs
and 11 controller area networks (CANs)
to accommodate different engine and
vehicle configurations.
According to Scania, the lab has enhanced its integrated ECU testing process
by reducing the level of manual work required by engineers to verify electronic
components on test benches. The number of testing variants that Scania is now
able to evaluate in this automated environment is substantially greater.
With automated system testing, the
possibilities increase since loops can be
created to run the same tests for all variants, where applicable, said Scania
Electrical Engineer Mikael Adenmark.
Although it often takes longer to write a
test script than to perform the same tests
manually, the possibility to run the same
test again in no time, quickly, saves time
for the tester when running regression
tests. This enables the advantage of reproducibility.
Another major benefit of Scanias integration lab is easy uploading of software
updates across the system. New versions
of software, which are often introduced
by external suppliers with differing release dates, can be uploaded immediately
across the whole system.
At the heart of the integration lab are
five full-size hardware-in-the-loop (HIL)
simulators and associated ECU racks for
mounting test devices. The simulators
and ECU racks were built and manufactured by dSpace, a global provider of
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focus on electronics

ECUs in Scania CAN Network

ACC

Automatic climate control system

AHS

Auxiliary heater system

APS

Air processing system

AUS

Audio system

AWD

All-wheel-drive system

BMS

Brake management system

BCS

Bus chassis system

BWS

Bodywork system

COO

Coordinator system

CSS

Crash safety system

CTS

Clock and timer system

EMS

Engine management system

FMS

Fleet management system

GMS

Gearbox management system

ICL

Instrument cluster system

LAS

Locking and alarm system

RTG

Road transport informatics gateway

RTI

Road transport informatics system

SMS

Suspension management system

TCO

Tachograph

VIS

Visibility system

briefs

briefs

engineering solutions for the development, testing, and validation of real-time

embedded controllers.
The HIL simulators within the integration lab establish a largely simulated environment that is conducive to automated
system testing.
Of the five HIL simulators that make
up the Scania integration lab, two are
dedicated to the integration testing of
powertrain and mandatory truck ECUs.
These include those for gearboxes, engines, instrument clusters, visibility, and
the coordinator system. Two are dedicated to the testing of vehicle dynamic
ECUs (e.g., brake management, air processing, suspension management, allwheel drive, locking and alarm, bus chassis, bodywork system). And one is dedicated to the testing of body ECUs (e.g.,
heater, informatics, climate control, crash
safety, audio, clock, timer systems).
Scania vehicles perform their main
communication via three global SAE
J1939 CAN buses running at 250 Kb/s.
These three buses carry nearly 100% of
the information that is necessary to support distributed ECU functionality.
For validation and manipulation of
the distributed functionalities, the buses
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CONNECTING EXPERIENCE

aei

OCTOBER 2007

27

focus on electronics
Diagnostic bus

COO

ICL
WTA

ATA

RTI

RTG

ACC

CSS

ICL-D1

Connection
to external
CAN

ICL-B1

APS
APS E

VIS
CUV

ICL-BUS

CTS

EMS
S6-PDE

EST146

S6-HPI

EST41
AWD
WTEC3

LAS
AUS

GMS
OPC4

RCL
ALARM

Connection to
body builder bus

TCO

BWS

CT

ABS
EBS

BCS

CTR

BMS

SMS
ELC-FAST

Connection
to trailer

ELC-BASIC

1DP

7DP

Connection to
body builder
truck

SC

In Scanias overall ECU network, intercommunication is performed via three controller area
networks (CANs) connected by a coordinator system (COO). Functional variants are identified by
gray boxes.

are double-implemented inside the integration lab. Each ECU can be connected
to one of the doubled buses or com-

pletely disconnected. A software gateway running on the HIL real-time hardware connects both buses. It enables

mirroring and manipulation of messages

and data between both buses. With this
configuration, ECUs can be separated to
get dedicated or manipulated CAN information, depending on the target test
configuration.
A powerful communications system
was required to carry out Scanias integrated testing requirements. In addition
to being able to support communications between multiple ECUs operating
on different networks, the system had to
be robust enough to enable reusability
testing. A total of 718 digital I/O channels were required to fulfill these technical needs.
Scania is presently using its integration
lab to perform CAN communication testing, user function testing, robustness
testing, and diagnostic testing.
Alicia Alvin, Marketing Manager, dSPACE, and
Matthias Deter, Senior Application Engineer, dSPACE,
wrote this article for AEI.

aeix.hotims.com/13779-228
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OCTOBER 2007

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