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In recent times, Model-Based Design has been recognized and adopted as a platform for innovation within the automotive industry. The future trends of continued globalization and convergence of the engineering disciplines will pose new challenges for engineers in communicating their design ideas with various stakeholders within their organizations. Automated report generation from software models, rich in information content, can offer a novel solution for addressing these challenges and enhancing process efficiency. We explore the technology in detail with regards to automation, document formats, templates, and interactivity. With examples borrowed from different stages of the development process, we illustrate the types of information that can be captured from a software model as a report for analysis and discussion. We conclude with a set of best practices for reporting that organizations can leverage to strengthen design processes centered on Model-Based Design.

A key step in Model-Based Design is the deployment of an algorithm as machine code onto a target processor in the production vehicle. Modern software tools automatically generate the algorithmic source code from models. Given the many combinatorial possibilities for realizing a given algorithm within the modeling environment, the generated C source code will be a function of a realization. This dependency is an important consideration because the quality and clarity of the source code impacts the amount of verification and analysis that must be done for production software development. Other factors involved in generating the machine code from the source code, such as compiler optimization and microprocessor architecture, also contribute to this optimization. Organizations that proactively data mine and gather these optimizations into a set of best practices stand to benefit from reduced development times and lower costs.

In this paper, we show how Model-Based Design can be applied in the development of a hybrid electric vehicle system. The paper explains how Model-Based Design begins with defining the design requirements that can be traced throughout the development process. This leads to the development of component models of the physical system, such as the power distribution system and mechanical driveline. We also show the development of an energy management strategy for several modes of operation including the full electric, hybrid, and combustion engine modes. Finally, we show how an integrated environment facilitates the combination of various subsystems and enables engineers to verify that overall performance meets the desired requirements.