Application of the FlexRay Communication protocol for a safety-critical X-by-Wire platform

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Application of the FlexRay Communication protocol for a safety-critical X-by-Wire platform

Zimmer, Eduard / Armbruster, Michael / Klaubert, Jens / Reichel, Reinhard

The next level within active driver assistance systems (ADAS) are systems with direct access to steering-, brake- and throttle-controls, acting as an active co-pilot. Instead of utilizing several diverse control units for the different systems there is one common platform consisting of a set of generic, redundant computing modules operating all applications. These computing modules and the surrounding sensors and actuators communicate with each other via redundant FlexRay networks, thus minimizing the wiring complexity. It is understandable that a X-by-Wire concept with full control authority has to fulfil highest safety requirements. This paper discusses the impacts of the characteristics of a FlexRayTM communication network used for communication in a safety-critical, redundant system. The considered X-by-Wire platform is built up as a redundant highly safety-critical multi-application platform consisting of four duplex core-computers with surrounding sensors and actuators. The complete communication between core computers, sensors and actuators is realised via FlexRayTM buses. As an introduction and as a background to the investigation regarding FlexRayTM, the platform structure and operation itself is derived in the first part of this paper. In the second part the minimum number of independent FlexRayTM busses necessary to fulfil the requirements regarding data consistency between the core computers is derived for the discussed system structure. The feasibility of the considered X-by-Wire platform approach has been shown within the EU-funded project SPARC.