T e st i n g Hardware

Hardware for
ECU Testing
During functional tests a modern and flexible test system must control the I/O
interfaces of the ECU. Test cases make different demands on the connection
and the operation of sensors and actuators, as well as the signalling or errors
and measurement of signals. Beside the different challenges to the test system
this article describes a new test hardware by Vector Informatik.

52 ATZelektronik 01I2008 Volume 3

1 Introduction high degree of flexibility from the test Author
systems, so the requirements described
Electronics and software have become below apply to most test platforms.
indispensable components in the auto- Dr. rer. nat.
mobile. Verification of development re- 2.1 Sensor and Actuator Connections Stefan Krau
sults therefore not only covers the me- Since ECUs often check the sensors and is Product Manager
chanical systems, but to a great extent actuators automatically, it is essential of test tools at Vector
also the electronic control units (ECUs) that they be connected or present during Informatik GmbH in
and their software. The complexity of the test. If an external component is de- Stuttgart.
the highly networked systems places fective, or does not even exist, the rele-
high demands on the testing process. vant system will usually generate error
Therefore, systematic and comprehen- memory entries, deactivate specific func-
sive tests are necessary in all phases of tions in the ECU or generate error mes-
development. sages. The sensors and actuators are
A number of test methods are applied therefore necessary even for tests in
in functional verification of the electron- which the functionality of a sensor or ac-
ic systems, Figure 1. Due to the complexity tuator itself is irrelevant.
of the vehicle network it is hardly possi- In the simplest case, the tester just ponents and simultaneously acquire
ble to master the integration of untested serves to connect original sensors and ac- their reactions. The ECU thereby oper-
ECUs. Prior to classic test runs with fully tuators directly to the ECU. Many devel- ates in a simulated environment. De-
built test platforms (such as driving tri- oper workstations are equipped with sim- pending on the situation, an open or
als) and integration tests on test fixtures, ple interconnection boxes for this pur- closed control loop may be required to
the ECUs vital organs must be tested pose, which house the necessary compo- simulate the environment. In the latter
separately. nents and have a suitable cable connec- case, the simulation considers the reac-
To test an individual ECU, the test sys- tion. On large test benches the original tions of the ECU in computing the sensor
tem not only needs to operate the com- sensors and actuators are provided to the signals sent to the ECU (hardware-in-the-
munication interfaces of the device un- ECUs being tested in a similar way. loop, HiL).
der trial (DUT), but its input and output An alternative to connecting original Essentially two strategies come into con-
interfaces too. The first task places high sensors and actuators is to use substitute sideration for incorporating sensors and
demands on the test software primarily, components. For example, a properly actuators in automated functional tests:
since besides pure bus access to CAN, sized resistor may be an acceptable sub- Precisely those components that will
LIN, FlexRay or MOST, the ECUs software stitute for a lamp. Since the ECUs only later be installed in the vehicle are
or protocol interfaces have to operate have simple measurement circuits for connected and controlled by the test
fully and reliably (like diagnostics via testing the components connected to system. Suitable mechanical and opto-
UDS or calibration via CCP/XCP). To con- them, the substitute sensor or actuator electronic devices such as actuating
trol the ECUs sensor and actuator con- may generally be designed to be just as robots are used to simulate events for
nections, on the other hand, the test sys- simple. These represent a compact and the original sensors and actuators.
tem needs suitable hardware compo- simple solutions compared to the use of The test setup is designed for a specif-
nents. The layout of these interfaces has original components. ic set of conditions and is modified in
a large impact on performance, flexibili- case of changes.
ty and last but not least the costs of a 2.2 Operation of Sensors and Actuators The test system that is directly con-
complete test system. To test the functionality of an ECU, the nected to the ECU simulates the sen-
test system must drive the external com- sors and actuators. In this case, the

2 Requirements of the Hardware

Interfaces

Which requirements are placed on a test

system in driving the hardware interfac-
es, first of all depends on the planned
tests and special aspects of the ECUs to be
tested. In comprehensive testing, many
fundamental requirements apply equally
to nearly all ECUs in the automobile.
Moreover, there is the wish to have the
ability to deal with test cases that are not
discovered until the definition of the test
system. Everyday practice demands a Figure 1: In the different development phases several test procedures are used

ATZelektronik 01I2008 Volume 3 53

T e st i n g Hardware

test system is capable of electrically

emulating sensor outputs and loads.
While it measures the activities of the
ECU at the ECU outputs, it places sig-
nals representing relevant sensor po-
sitions at the inputs.
When original components are used, the
tester does not need to be concerned
about how realistic the simulation is,
but the simulation is limited to the prop-
erties of the components used. This lim-
its the flexibility of the test bench. Sys-
tematic testing of ECU behavior in re-
sponse to slight differences in sensors
and actuators (component variance) is
not possible, for example. In contrast,
universal simulation capability offers
the additional advantage, that the test
bench may be used for different ECUs
without requiring major modifications.
In conjunction with tests, when sen-
sors and actuators are simulated, this
usually does not imply that there is a
simulation model in the test system that
represents their physical properties pre-
cisely. It is sufficient, for example, if the Figure 2: Modules of the
test system provides the voltage expected VT system are designed as
from a sensor or simulates the load of an plug-in cards
actuator by suitable current flow. From
the perspective of the ECU, the test sys-
tem nonetheless simulates the sensors
and actuators, although perhaps not in therefore exhibit poor reproducibility. 3 Integrated Solution for I/O Control
every detail. Such causes of errors are frequently ne-
glected in the development of hardware Vector Informatik supports analysis, sim-
2.3 Signalling of Errors and software too, because the develop- ulation and automated testing of ECUs
To test the reactions of an ECU to errors ers primary focus is on the desired func- with the powerful development and test
in the connected environment, the test tions. To achieve system reliability, how- tool CANoe [1]. Vector hardware interfac-
system must represent relevant errors. ever, it is crucial that the ECUs also react es also provide for a reliable bus access to
Potential error conditions include: properly in error situations. CAN, LIN, FlexRay or MOST. Test benches
Problems with the connection lines of of a wide range of complexity can be set
sensors and actuators: line breaks, 2.4 Measurement up using drive control of measurement
short circuits between wire pairs, In the test cases, reference values are and test hardware via GPIB or the serial
short circuits of individual lines to specified for certain relevant control port and integration of standard I/O
ground or battery voltage. variables, which are compared to actual cards from various producers.
Defects of the sensors and actuators values at the ECU outputs. The test sys- To control the hardware I/O lines in
themselves, such as excessively high tem must therefore be capable of meas- an ECU test, Vector offers a compact solu-
or low internal resistance of an actua- uring the relevant variables at a resolu- tion in the Vector VT system, Figure 2. The
tor or excessively high current con- tion and precision appropriate to the test ECUs I/O lines are connected to the mod-
sumption of an active sensor. case. Coming into consideration as meas- ular system, and original sensors and ac-
Sensor signals outside of the specified urement variables are momentary values tuators may be connected if necessary,
value range, like physically impossible as well as mean values and effective val- Figure 3. The PC with CANoe is connected
values of a rotary encoder or implau- ues. Increasingly, characteristic parame- via a fast real-time network interface.
sibly high temperature values of a ters such as frequencies and duty cycles This enables setup of flexible test systems
temperature sensor. of pulse-width modulated signals are in without a lot of integration and wiring
Detailed tests under these error condi- demand, since many actuators are now effort. The VT system is well-suited for
tions are especially important, because driven with PWM signals, such as bright- small test setups at developer worksta-
they occur very sporadically during vehi- ness control of the LEDs in the instru- tions as well as for comprehensive test
cle trials and on test fixtures, and they ment cluster. benches in the test laboratory.

54 ATZelektronik 01I2008 Volume 3

 The VT system simplifies the layout of already integrated. The modules can also
test benches substantially by integrating handle high currents like those occurring
all of the circuit components needed to when lamps and motors are driven.
switch an I/O channel in one module,
Figure 4. Examples of such I/O channels
might be the output of an ECU for driv- 4 Summary
ing a headlamp or the input for the con-
nection of a brightness sensor. Since all Automated testing of ECUs places many
channels are connected with two wires, different requirements on a test systems
the system supports all input and output control of I/O channels. Therefore develop-
types relevant in practice, including mo- ers need suitable components for connect-
tors driven via an H-bridge in the ECU. ing and operating sensors and actuators.
The modules are equipped with relays Furthermore, units must also be reserved
that serve to connect ECU lines to the con- for error display and measurement. The
nected original sensors and actuators. Vector VT system offers the tester a com-
Moreover, errors such as line breaks and pact and at the same time high-perform-
short circuits can be emulated. If original ance solution for interfacing an ECUs I/O
components are unavailable, or if error channels to a test system with CANoe. The
states are to be simulated, the integrated modular system provides all significant
load and sensor simulations are used as an components for each channel such as the
alternative. Furthermore, if the integrated measuring unit with signal conditioning,
measurement and simulation components load and sensor simulation and the neces-
should prove to be insufficient, it is possi- sary relays. With its functions and proper-
ble to connect external measurement and ties, the system makes it easy to set up test
test equipment via bus bars. systems for ECUs that can be applied flexi-
The measurement and stimulation bly in the automotive field.
equipment contained in the modules, as
well all other components, are designed
for the voltage ranges typically used in Reference
the automotive environment. Where nec- [1] Riegraf, T., Beeh, S., Krau, S.: Efficient Testing
essary, devices for signal conditioning are in Automotive Electronics. In: ATZ 109 (2007),
issue 7-8, pp. 648-655

Figure 3: I/O lines used in ECU testing are controlled by the VT system

Figure 4: All components needed to test an I/O channel of the ECU are contained in VT
modules

ATZelektronik 01I2008 Volume 3 55