Research Issues in Computing Systems:
An Automotive Perspective
Mafijul Islam, PhD
Software Systems, Electrical and Embedded Systems
Advanced Technology & Research
Outline
 Introduction to Volvo Group
 Introduction to Advanced Technology and Research
 Introduction to Electrical and Embedded Systems
 Research topics/issues within Software Systems
Volvo Group Trucks Technology
Advanced Technology & Research
2012-10-16
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Volvo Group Trucks Technology
Advanced Technology and Research
2012-10-16
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Outline
 Introduction to Volvo Group
 Introduction to Advanced Technology and Research
 Introduction to Electrical and Embedded Systems
 Research topics/issues within Software Systems
Volvo Group Trucks Technology
Advanced Technology & Research
2012-10-16
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Advanced Technology and Research (ATR)
• Pioneering technology for future Volvo
Group products and services
• Areas of operation: Research, Advanced
Engineering, Product Development,
Innovation, Business Engineering, Corporate
Services
• ~ 500 employees in Sweden, France, North
America, India, Japan and China
• Established 1969, a Volvo Group business
unit 1997, a function within Volvo Group
Trucks Technology 2012
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Advanced Technology & Research
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“At Advanced Technology & Research
the future is already in progress.
Cutting edge technical solutions and
services come to life”.
ATR – Drives Long Term Technology
Development for Volvo Group
 Drives innovation to address challenges
 Drives long term technology roadmaps
 Drives the Group Technology Plan
 Performs continuous technology scouting
 Participates in, and often coordinates,
collaborative research in national and
international research programs where we
represent Volvo Group
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ATR – our context
Research
Advanced
Engineering
Industry
Product
Development
& Services
Society &
Authorities
Internal
funding
Our areas of operation
External
funding
Our partners
Public
funding
Our funding
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Academia
ATR – in Global Research & Innovation
 Represents Volvo Group in strategic national and
international networks (industry, institutes,
authorities and academia), examples:
- Vinnova, STEM, European Commission, EUCAR, ERTRAC,
ERTICO, DOE, DOT.
- Strategic Competence centers, Universities, Authorities
and Partners in the industry
 Participates in external research programs:
- For development of common methodologies and standards
- Leveraging of internal R&D resources for emerging
technologies
- Business/competitive intelligence
- Influencing legislation and technological development
- For competence development & input
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ATR – Technology Priority Areas
Energy Efficiency &
Environment
Transport Solutions & Services
Vehicle Technology & Safety
Electrical & Embedded Systems
Supply Chain
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Advanced Technology & Research
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Outline
 Introduction to Volvo Group
 Introduction to Advanced Technology and Research
 Introduction to Electrical and Embedded Systems
 Research topics/issues within Software Systems
Volvo Group Trucks Technology
Advanced Technology & Research
2012-10-16
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ATR – Electrical and Embedded Systems
 Increase efficiency of software development for embedded systems
 Develop new AUTOSAR platform for electrical and embedded
architecture supporting flexibility, energy-efficiency & functional safety
 Develop new dependability concepts related to architecture and
knowledge transfer in the area of processes and standards
 Develop high efficient energy conversion focusing on electrical
machines, power electronic and integrated real time control
 Create new embedded software development methods for multicores
 Develop in-vehicle wireless networks
Volvo Group Trucks Technology
Advanced Technology & Research
2012-10-16
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Outline
 Introduction to Volvo Group
 Introduction to Advanced Technology and Research
 Introduction to Electrical and Embedded Systems
 Research topics/issues within Software Systems
Volvo Group Trucks Technology
Advanced Technology & Research
2012-10-16
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ATR – Software Systems
 Software development processes
 Systems engineering
 Standardized software platforms and components
 Fault tolerant systems
 Multicore software systems
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ATR – Software Systems – Dependability
 Functional Safety
– ISO 26262, IEC 61508
– Evaluation of functional safety
 Robustness evaluation
– AUTOSAR platforms and software components
 Fault tolerant E/E architecture
– Fault tolerance mechanisms; Fault Detection, Isolation and
Recovery (FDIR)
– Methods and tools for fault injection, AUTOSAR-based system
 Diagnostics and uptime
– Reduce diagnostic time
– Increase uptime
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ATR – Software Systems – Mixed-Critical System
 Dimensions
Characteristics of Mixed-critical Systems
Safety
Security
Adaptability
Availability
and/or
Reliability
Distributed
Situationallyaware
 Management of interferences
– Safety boundaries and freedom from interferences
 Compose-able verification scheme
– Reduce V&V costs and efforts
 Redundancy and fault tolerance
– Fault/error model based on criticality level
– Cost- and resource-effective mechanisms
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Affordability
ATR – Software Systems – Multicores
Electrical and electronic (E/E) system architectures
 The in-vehicle architectures can be simplified by executing the
software previously run on multiple ECUs on multi-cores instead
 This results in a reduced number of network connections and buses,
i.e. a shift towards more centralized architectures with reduced costs
ECU hardware architectures
 A homogeneous architecture contains multiple identical cores and a
heterogeneous architecture contains cores with different instruction
sets
 The current trend is to create homogeneous multi-core devices, but
significantly performance advantages can be obtained by using
specialized cores and accelerators to offload the main cores
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ATR – Software Systems – Multicores
Scheduling algorithms
 On a multi-core processor the software components must be grouped
together by an algorithm and scheduled by a dispatcher task
 A static scheduling algorithm assigns the components to cores at build
time prior to execution, this approach has been taken within the
AUTOSAR consortium
Worst-Case Execution Time (WCET) analysis
 Used to find upper bounds for the largest possible execution time of
software
 Important when verifying the timing properties of safety-critical realtime systems
 By introducing multi-core processors the analysis previously done on
single-core processors cannot be used out-of-the box, hence new
analysis methods needed
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Questions?
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