An investigation into the use of hardware-in-the-loop simulation testing for automotive electronic control systems

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An investigation into the use of hardware-in-the-loop simulation testing for automotive electronic control systems

Kendall, I.R. / Jones, R.P.

Jaguar has elected to base its present simulation activities around the MATLAB/SIMULINK tools from The Mathworks Inc. These tools are widely used in industry and academia, and offer a capable, cost-effective simulation solution. However, it is the existence of a new Mathworks tool, called STATEFLOW, which works within the SIMULINK environment, that is one of the major attractions. STATEFLOW enables state transition, mode-switching-type behaviour to be integrated with the continuous and discrete tirne representations traditionally provided by SIMULINK. This had not been possible until recently, and has been a serious limitation on how faithfully systems could be rnodelled, as most real control systems involve multiple modes and system operational states. The HILST platform selected is supplied by dSPACE GmbH of Germany. dSPACE offer a modular real-time computing environment, with configurable I/O capability for bringing the simulated signals into the real-world, and a set of software tools which integrate strongly with the MATLAB products. This paper describes some of the technical work performed by Jaguar (in conjunction with Cambridge Control Ltd.) during the pilot project to develop an off-line simulation of the XK8 driver's door system and to develop it into a HILST demonstration using an actual control module.