Automation solution for Software Testing of CAN based ECUs

In contemporary vehicle electronics, ECUs are pre-eminent to effectuate the system and deliver the prolific features embedded within them. The paradigm shift to ECU technology has led to an increase in the complexity of the software that now has to render safety and diagnostic services along with functional solutions. Taking cognizance of this intricacy, the enhancement of testing methodologies to assess the behavior of Software has become of critical importance. This paper presents a method of automating the software testing of CAN-based products to verify its functional and diagnostic requirements in a hardware-in-loop environment using automation tool ECU-TEST.The objective of this paper is to demonstrate the development of components of test bench that are CAN-compatible relay board (test-board), the algorithm of test-board software, and the test cases scripted in ECU-TEST tool. ECU-TEST tool controls the complete data flow in the system. In this hardware-in-loop testing environment, ECU-TEST is responsible for providing inputs to the device under test, recording the behavior associated with it, and then analyzing this data to generate the test results.The utilization of this automation setup for software testing of a headlamp unit resulted in a decrease in the time required for testing from two days to one and a half-hour. This approach has minimized the testing time substantially, also providing certainty to deliver a better quality of software.

I. Introduction

Functional testing of automotive software is performed after the integration of all the sub-components of the software program to verify the system level, real-time performance of the software program. Functional testing involves testing of fundamental functional features, in-vehicle networking protocol performance, diagnostic services, and functional safety features of the product[1][2]. These features are tested and validated in a subsystem testbed, like a hardware-in-loop system.