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We have developed a cooperative simulation environment for multiple electronic control units (ECUs) including a parallel executions mechanism to improve the test efficiency of a system, which was designed with multiple ECUs for autonomous driving. And we have applied it to a power window system for multiple ECUs with a controller area network (CAN). The power window model consists of an electronic-mechanical model and a CPU model. Each simulator with a different executions speed operates in parallel using a synchronization mechanism that exchanges data outputted from each simulator at a constant cycle. A virtual ECU simulated microcontroller hardware operations and executed its control program step-by-step in binary code to test software for the product version. As co-simulation technology, a mechanism that synchronously executes heterogeneous simulators and a model of an in-vehicle communication CAN connecting each ECU were developed.

This paper presents the “Virtual Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (vFMEA)” system, which is a high-fidelity electrical-failure-simulation platform, and applies it to the software verification of an electric power steering (EPS) system. The vFMEA system enables engineers to dynamically inject a drift fault into a circuit model of the electronic control unit (ECU) of an EPS system, to analyze system-level failure effects, and to verify software-implemented safety mechanisms, which consequently reduces both cost and time of development. The vFMEA system can verify test cases that cannot be verified using an actual ECU and can improve test coverage as well. It consists of a cycle-accurate microcontroller model with mass-production software implemented in binary format, analog and digital circuit models, mechanical models, and a state-triggered fault-injection mechanism.