eFMI (FMI for embedded systems) in AUTOSAR for Next Generation Automotive Software Development

Nowadays automobiles are getting smart and there is a growing need for the physical behavior to become part of its software. This behavior can be described in a compact form by differential equations obtained from modeling and simulation tools. In the offline simulation domain the Functional Mockup Interface (FMI), a popular standard today supported by most of the tools, allows to integrate a model with solver (Co-Simulation FMU) into another simulation environment. These models cannot be directly integrated with embedded automotive software due to special restrictions with respect to hard real-time constraints and MISRA compliance. Another architectural restriction is organizing software components according to the AUTOSAR standard which is typically not supported by the physical modeling tools. On the other hand AUTOSAR generating tools do not have the required advanced symbolic and numerical features to process differential equations. In order to bridge the gap to the embedded world the publicly funded ITEA3 project EMPHYSIS (Embedded Systems with Physical Models in Production Code Software) has developed the new eFMI (FMI for embedded systems) standard, to enable the exchange of physics-based models between modeling and simulation environments with software development environments for electronic control unit (ECU), micro controllers or other embedded systems. In this paper, we summarize the basic concepts of the new eFMI standard and how it can be utilized in an AUTOSAR tool chain to realize advanced functions incorporating numerically challenging problems in a reproducible, MISRA compliant, time and cost effective fashion. Based on an automotive physics based model, it is demonstrated on Bosch ECU (Engine Control Unit), how a model created and simulated in a physical modeling tool is integrated with an AUTOSAR framework. Comparative measure are provided that indicate performance, resource demand and development effort of the proposed new eFMI workflow against a manually coded state of the art solution.