Integrated Testing Platform for Complete ECU Software Validation

In today's scenario EE software validation phase in the automotive software development cycle uses three different testing environments (Verification uses Model In Loop (MIL), function validation uses Software In Loop (SIL), HW and system level tests uses Hardware In Loop (HIL), & system testing uses Vehicle). Each of these platforms are highly expensive to deploy & maintain and poses major constraints in directly comparing the test results across platforms due to the difference in test reporting structures. It is also noticed that there is high redundancy or overlapping of test cases and timely availability of these platforms for timely SW releases. The solution helps in combining MIL, SIL & HIL testing stages into one single "Integrated Testing Platform" which eventually saves testing time, effort & cost along with early bug detection during software development phase. With the reuse of relevant compatible test-cases, test-case redundancy is eliminated thus reducing total man-hours spent in creating similar tests in different environments for same function. Additional benefits includes improved test-case coverage and fault reaction testing on digital platform. Both the platforms are compatible to single reporting tool (ex. CANape logs), thus streamlining the test report format. In this manner, HIL & Vehicle test platforms can be dedicated to hardware/system specific tests & application layer logics can be tested via this platform during the early stage of software development. The closed loop digital validation platform includes plant model, SIL & HIL connected to each other via SILVER and PROVEtech tool wherein PROVEtech acts as master for controlling and SILVER acts as backbone for all the test simulations. The results from this platform have common format and thus can be compared and analyzed via common analysis tool. This helps in easy reporting structure across different platforms.