Simulation of Model Execution for Embedded Systems

In automotive and robotics, simulation is an indispensable tool for testing and validation. A simulator is able to test a system under varying conditions at low cost in a non-safety-critical environment. Furthermore, in the development process of a new vehicle, the first prototype is mostly produced after a long design phase, which can take up to several years. Before the prototype is available, tests can only be performed in a simulation. To make the simulation results reliable, both the system and its environment need to be modeled as realistic as possible. As modern vehicles include a large amount of software, the execution of vehicle software needs to be simulated with respect to the underlying E/E infrastructure. In this paper, we present a simulation framework for the execution of vehicle control models deployed in a vehicle network. Furthermore, the execution simulator is embedded into a vehicle simulator, making it possible to validate the vehicle software functionality under the given hardware conditions.