Project : dart

Section: Application Domains

Automative Safety embedded Systems

The automotive industry has specific problems, particularly due to increased safety requirements and legal framework. The automobile is a hostile environment: especially in the engine compartment. Some failure modes will be benign, whereas others may be dangerous and cause accidents and endanger human life. The Annex to the IEE Guidance Document on EMC and Functional Safety [ref] lists 21 electronic systems that may be present in the modern automobile, some of which have the potential to endanger the safety of the vehicle occupants or other road users should an error or a mis-operation occur.

In the ModEasy Interreg project we want to model a cruise control connected to the satellite positioning system, GPS: from a UML specification and using classical verification and model checking techniques we want to assure the correct behaviour of the system. Using model transformation allows the guarantee of these verifications at the lower levels like SystemC/VHDL.

Collision avoidance radars are now integrated into high end models by car manufacturers. The current devices are however based on the frequency modulation and their maximum range is limited if the emitted power is kept under the recommended values The receiver uses digital correlators which have been implemented via DSP microprocessors. The codes are generated using FPGA devices. In order to achieve greater integration and improve security, we are now seeking to design the major parts as embedded systems based on FPGA and SoC devices. In this context, the use of tools developed in the ModEasy project will improve and facilitate the design of such complex systems. Moreover, as ModEasy is based on metamodels and transformations between metamodels, new algorithms or new FPGAs can rapidly be integrated in the system by the re-use of existing functional blocks.