While a software tool supplier may want to deliver a complete set of development tools, automakers and tier one electronics suppliers usually wind up mixing and matching the capabilities of several suppliers. As a result, cooperative competition links suppliers of simulation, verification, code development, production code generation, hardware-in-loop, and test and calibration equipment. As the entire automotive industry struggles to rapidly realign with the changing consumer requirements, cooperative efforts are more important than ever.

With $4.00 and higher gasoline prices, US car buyers have dropped the SUV and other high fuel consumption vehicles like a bad habit and finally reversed the trend of more trucks than cars. Carmakers with high mileage vehicles have had increased sales but those companies that relied heavily on SUVs and trucks, such as GM, Ford and Chrysler have been hit hard. Total sales for the Detroit Three for 2008 vehicles have plummeted.

In spite of the current financial situation, carmakers have to develop vehicles that people are going to buy. Today, one of the first things on the “must-have” list is fuel economy. With accelerated or entirely new programs to satisfy current customer requirements, design and development tools have become more important than ever.

“So far, I haven’t seen a whole lot of hesitation on buying tools because of the need for hybrids and fuel economy, which has been growing,” said Kevin Kott, President, dSpace Inc.

In fact, the rapidly changing environment has accelerated the acceptance and spread of software tools, reinforcing the reasons for adapting these tools. “One of the reasons is because design cycle times are changing, they are getting shorter,” said Paul Latiolais, Marketing Manager, Synopsys, Inc. “The other aspect of this, related to it, is that consumer demands are changing more rapidly than they use to.” With even shorter design windows, design tools can shave time from the design and development schedule. There are additional reasons for implementing the latest design tools.

“The introduction of a hybrid adds a whole new level of complexity in the electronics area that is really, really driving a high demand for tools,” said Mark Jensen, product line Mmanager, Process Tools (and team leader, Customer Training), Vector CANtech. “A lot of our new business is coming out of these newly formed or at least newly expanded hybrid groups.” The need to change quickly and added complexity have brought automakers to tool suppliers with very specific requests.

“One of the big things they are looking for is the ability to integrate multiple development tools that have not previously been linked,” said Jensen. Modeling new control algorithms in one tool and then modeling network communication or control strategy in another tool is a common practice. Now engineers are looking for ways that these tools can communicate with each other in an automated way and take what had previously been segregated development activities and bring them together in a single combined development strategy. Since the tools are generally from different companies, it means that these tools have to work along common interface boundaries. That does not mean that tool suppliers have stopped trying to provide as much of the total solution as possible. Figure 1 shows how Vector’s eASEE project and process management tool addresses data management in the V model for software development.

“What we have seen just over the last year is multiple customers come to us and ask us for the end to end solution-- the interoperability of everything from developing your requirements to developing the systems engineering, the development and release of the components but all the way up the validation side of the V,” said John Cain, vice-president, sales and marketing, Vector CANtech. The key is interoperability.

“There seems to be a lot of distaste right now for tools that are standalone,” said Jensen. “If the tool doesn’t interoperate with other tools or doesn’t at least have very good data exchange capabilities with other tools, it tends to be frowned upon.” Automakers and tier one suppliers have high expectations for new tool and new tool functions to support integration of the tools that are already in place. One of the cooperative efforts to ensure interoperability is shown in Figure 2. Vector and The MathWorks worked together so that Vector’s CANape and MathWorks’ Simulink can exchange simulation data

In the current economical environment, cost is more important than ever and the right development tools can reduce costs as well as development time. “In the data management, we’ve seen reductions in costs in their process systems of everything ranging from like 20 to 90 percent,” said Cain. “From end to end, just a guesstimate, might be a 40 to 50 percent reduction in cost.” The cost savings appears to correlate well with the time savings in the overall process.

Carmakers, especially in specific departments, are well aware of the capability that development tools bring in terms of cost and time savings. Reporting the results from using these tools has become an integral part of SAE papers and industry forums. At the annual 2008 SAE Congress, GM reported on virtual manufacturing efforts and distributed computing (SAE 2008-01-0288, Designing Automotive Subsystems Using Virtual Manufacturing and Distributed Systems) as well as variable valve timing (SAE 2008-01-0901, Modeling and Simulating a VVT System for Robust Design).

Both of these projects used Synopsys’ Saber simulator, a multidomain or multi-physics (electrical, thermal, hydraulic, mechanical and more) modeling and analysis tool. In one case, the authors concluded that the GM powertrain and its suppliers who participated in the Signal Delivery Subsystem (SDSS) modeling and simulation process reported reductions in both development time and costs. In the other, it was noted that compared to hardware prototypes, “simulation, using a virtual prototype is a vastly more practical and useful alternative due to the time and cost considerations involved when making multiple permutations.”

In another SAE paper (2008- 01-0085, Model-Based Design for Hybrid Electric Vehicle Systems), several MathWorks’ engineers showed how model-based design using Simulink and other tools can be implemented in the design of a hybrid electric vehicle. Figure 3 shows average and detailed models that were developed and tested. The authors concluded that “continuous validation and verification of requirements throughout the design process reduced errors and development time.”

Hybrids are just one of the approaches to increase fuel economy and reduce reliance on foreign oil. Diesel engines are the solution for higher fuel economy in Europe and certainly will be part of the mix in the United States with clean diesel fuel available now and ongoing efforts to limit particulates. Flex fuel systems with E-85 Ethanol / gasoline mix are another solution from several carmakers. “All of these are changes and all of these have to rapidly be put into the cars and if you rely on traditional systems like physical prototyping then you can be in trouble,” said Synopsys’ Latiolais. “I don’t think there is any way to do it now with just physical prototyping. Those days are gone.”