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Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing is used by commercial vehicle original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in several fields of electronics development. HIL tests are a part of the standard development process for engine and machine control systems. For electronic control units (ECUs), not only the HIL test of the hardware but also the controller software validation is very important. For hardware diagnostics validation, a dynamic simulation of the real system could be omitted and an open-loop test of the controller is sufficient in most cases. For most controller software validation including OBD (on-board diagnosis) tests, detailed but real-time capable models have to be used. This article describes the needs and challenges of models in hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) based testing, taking into account the wide range of commercial and off-highway vehicles.

Electric powertrains are quiet, efficient, and provide a better controllability over their conventional counterparts. There are also many other areas in off-highway and commercial vehicles that are beginning to apply Electric Drive technology. The heart of these systems is the Electric Drive control technology being done on ECUs. Due to the complexity of the systems and need for demanding control applications, these ECU systems require a level of closed-loop testing that previous standard bench test-methods cannot supply. The common approach to testing these systems is using Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) systems designed for electric drive. This paper describes a typical HIL simulation platform for testing control systems for electric powertrain. The scope of this paper covers the standard practices in HIL simulation of electric drives, giving a general overview of the necessary interfaces and simulation technology.

Ford Motor Company has recently implemented a Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) testing system for a new, highly complex, hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) Electronic Control Unit (ECU). The implementation of this HIL system has been quick and effective, since it is based on proven Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) automation tools for real-time that allow for a very flexible and intuitive design process. An overview of the HIL system implementation process and the derived development benefits will be shown in this paper. The initial concept for the use of this HIL system was a complete closed-loop vehicle simulation environment for Vehicle System Controller testing, but the paper will show that this concept has evolved to allow for the use of the HIL system for many facets of the design process.

Currently, Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) testing is the defacto standard for ECU verification and validation at the majority of the Commercial Vehicle OEMs and Tier1 suppliers. HIL Testing is used to shorten development and testing time for both engine and machine control systems. In order to use this process, many of these companies have to develop and maintain expertise in the area of Model-based development (MBD). This paper introduces an approach which allows for the effective use of HIL systems without having to directly work in a MBD environment. Many HIL tests can be done with stimulus and response analysis of the ECUs, given core knowledge of the expected behavior of its control software and I/O subsystems. For hardware interface and diagnostics validation, this open-loop testing of the controller may suffice. It is important to provide the tester with capabilities to easily modify these stimuli and evaluate the responses.

In the last few years, we have seen a tremendous increase in the rise in product complexity due to advances in technology and aircraft system functionality enhancement. The Model-based Design (MBD) process has helped manage the complexity of these systems while making product development faster by bringing more effective tools and methods to the entire process. Developing software using MBD has required extensive, sophisticated tool-chains that allow for efficient rapid controls prototyping, automatic code generation, and advanced validation and verification techniques using model-in-the-loop (MIL), software-in-the-loop (SIL), and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) for both component testing and integration testing. However, the MBD process leads to generation of large volumes of data artifacts and work-products throughout the V-Cycle.

The Aerospace and Defense industry is currently challenged in multiple ways - cost cutting and sequestration on the defense side, and spurt of growth on the commercial aviation side of business. While these are opposing trends, both will impose severe challenges to the management of product development process for both the Air framers and the suppliers. The challenge becomes severe as the innovation expectations become rapid with increases in embedded software content in avionics and the advent of a new category of autonomous ground, marine, and air systems. Clearly, the industry need is to have a product development process that allows for reducing costs, while increasing embedded software quality and thereby product quality even in an iterative development process.