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The trend in automotive systems is towards an increasing complexity, where much of safety-critical functionality is implemented in software. The emerging safety automotive standard ISO-26262, will require safety cases where are clearly argued that a system is safe in all aspects, and where showing a timely behaviour is one necessary condition. Based on industrial experiences and actual research from as well automotive as aerospace domains, this paper shows how the safety requirements from ISO-26262 with respect to timing can be met even in a complex situation, such as enabled by AUTOSAR.

With several automotive OEMs recently embracing AUTOSAR as a mandate for electronic modules throughout the vehicle, and with the established legacy around implementations of Infotainment, Instrument Cluster and Telematics systems, we see some questions and uncertainty around the best way forward. This is further complicated by the desire of many OEMs to enable the use of mobile applications and other aspects of the mobile operating systems available from Google, Apple and others, and the desire to leverage content residing on connected mobile devices. And it seems inevitable that more powerful silicon devices will enable a reduction in the number of electronic control modules in the vehicle architecture, through module consolidation.

Software and electronic circuits are commonly used with mechanical components today. In the past, the design of functionally sufficient and robust mechanical components was always completed by experienced mechanical engineers. This is changing, however. The requirements of additional functionality and reduced price have led to the introduction of mechatronics - mechanical parts augmented with electronic hardware controlled by software. Designing and verifying such a system is a challenge that requires a change in methodology as two very different engineering disciplines collide. This paper illustrates a simulation-based design methodology for software controlled, electro-mechanical components using an autonomous mobile robot as an example. VHDL-AMS, the Analog-Mixed-Signal extension (IEEE 1076.1) of the digital hardware description language VDHL, was used as the main modeling language.

This paper describes the joint development of a data model exchange interface based on STEP AP212 to support the flow of electrical data through the design process - specifically between the Mentor Graphics CHS (ECAD) system and the UGS NX3 (MCAD) system. The reasons for selecting AP212 in preference to the AP210 and KBL data exchange protocols are discussed. The scope of the interface is discussed, and examples are presented of the translation of real-world electrical objects into the AP212 data model. The definition of the exchange file format is described, with examples, and the reasoning behind its design is discussed.