Technical Paper
Hardware-in-the-Loop Testing of Engine Control Units - A Technical Survey
2007-04-16
2007-01-0500
Due to tougher legislation on exhaust emissions reduction and the consumer demand for more power and mobility and less fuel consumption, the functionality in today's engine management systems continues to grow. The electronic engine control units (ECUs) have to perform more control tasks using new sensors and actuators, along with the corresponding self-diagnostics (OBD, on-board diagnosis). All this leads to continuously increasing demands on automated hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test systems. HIL technology has advanced in parallel to the ECUs, and is today an indispensable tool for developing automotive electronics. This paper therefore aims to provide a comprehensive and state-of-the-art survey of HIL test systems for engine controllers. First of all, a brief introduction to the ECU's functionality is given.