Mentor Graphics Corporation has completed an AUTOSAR demonstrator project with Volvo Trucks. The project involved redeveloping an existing climate control system using AUTOSAR technology. Its goal was to increase the knowledge about AUTOSAR within the Volvo group and to evaluate the commercial viability of the AUTOSAR concept.
Mentor is a premium member of AUTOSAR, which stipulated that commercial vehicles should not be explicitly considered in developing the AUTOSAR concept. Volvo, which is also an AUTOSAR Premium Member, decided to evaluate the AUTOSAR concept from a commercial vehicle manufacturer’s perspective to verify whether the AUTOSAR standard can handle the special needs of this domain.
Volvo 3P senior software architect Joakim Ohlsson said the prototype included support for commercial vehicle-specific bus protocols such as SAE J1587 as well as advanced control of actuators such as stepper motors. “The application was also split in different ways over ECUs to test the transferability of functions across the network,” he said.
Mentor Graphics was responsible for developing and integrating the AUTOSAR middleware platform with the operating system and the run-time environment generator being developed by Live Devices of ETAS Group. Mentor adapted its Volcano network architect (VNA) into the design flow to enable predictable network communication over controller area network (CAN) in the context of AUTOSAR. Within five months the prototype was successfully integrated and tested in a real truck.
Volvo 3P’s Ohlsson said results from the demonstrator project indicate that the major AUTOSAR concepts are working, it is possible to handle special needs for commercial vehicles, and that AUTOSAR components and tools are mature enough to start concept studies targeting product development.