JP2010033130A - Simulation method, system, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To efficiently simulate a system having a plurality of heterogeneous ECUs by software means. <P>SOLUTION: Referring to an ECU emulator or each physical apparatus simulator as a logical process, each ECU emulator is speculatively emulated, and in each logical process, even if an input event is not reached, input is predicted to proceed with processing. By this speculative execution, processing is performed in advance without waiting for output of another logical process, thus improving parallelism in processes. If actual input received belatedly does not match with input for predicted speculative execution, the speculative execution ends in failure, thereby returning back to a state at the previous time, and on the basis of actual input, the processing is reexecuted. An allowable error is set for matching determination for actually received input and input at predictive speculative execution, thus enabling setting to satisfy both of accuracy and speed of simulation. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to testing of electronic control units (ECUs) used in automobiles and the like, and more particularly to testing and emulation of multiple ECUs on a software basis.

  In the early twentieth century of the early era, automobiles consisted of mechanical parts including an engine as power and a brake, accelerator, steering wheel, transmission, and suspension. Except for the ignition of the engine plug and the headlight, Almost no electrical mechanism was used.

  However, since the 1970s, there has been a need to efficiently control the engine in preparation for air pollution, oil crisis, and the like, and thus ECUs have been used for engine control. The ECU generally includes an input interface for A / D conversion, for example, an input interface from a sensor, a logical operation unit (microcomputer) that processes a digital input signal in accordance with a predetermined logic, and the processing result as an actuator. And an output interface for converting into an operation signal.

  Nowadays, in automobiles such as control systems such as engines and transmissions, Anti-lock Breaking System (ABS), Electronic Stability Control (ESC), power steering as well as wiper control and security monitoring system, Not only mechanical parts but also electronic parts and software account for an important proportion. The development cost for the latter is said to be 25% or 40% of the total, accounting for 70% for hybrid type vehicles.

  Electronic control is performed by arranging a plurality of ECUs. The ECUs are connected to each other via an in-vehicle network, for example, a controller area network (CAN). In addition, an engine, a transmission, or the like, which is a control target, is directly wired from each ECU and connected.

  The ECU is a small computer and operates in response to an interrupt from a sensor input or the like. On the other hand, an engine or the like continuously performs a mechanical operation. That is, a computer-based digital system and a mechanical-system physical system perform a cooperative operation in parallel in a single system called an automobile. Naturally, the software that supports this is becoming increasingly complex, and it is urgent to implement a mechanism that not only verifies the operation of the ECU alone, but also verifies the plurality at the same time.

  Here, the sensor that inputs a signal to the ECU includes a temperature sensor that measures the temperature of the engine, a pressure sensor that estimates the pressure sucked into the engine, and a throttle position sensor that measures the amount of depression of the access pedal Steering angle sensor, vehicle height sensor, rotational speed sensor, knock sensor, acceleration sensor, flow sensor, oxygen sensor, lean air-fuel ratio sensor, and the like.

  On the other hand, the actuator driven by the output signal of the ECU includes an electromagnetic solenoid and a motor. Solenoids are used, for example, for engine injectors, transmission shift control, brake valve control, and door locks.

  The motor is mainly used as a servo mechanism for an engine starter, engine fuel control, brake hydraulic pump, rudder angle control, steering, wiper, power window, seat belt, airbag, and the like.

  As a technique conventionally performed for such a test, there is HILS (Hardware In the Loop Simulation). In particular, the environment for testing the ECU of the entire vehicle is called full vehicle HILS. In the full vehicle HILS, a real ECU is connected to a dedicated hardware device that emulates an engine, a transmission mechanism, and the like in a laboratory, and a test is performed according to a predetermined scenario. The output from the ECU is input to a monitoring computer and further displayed on a display, and a tester checks whether there is an abnormal operation while looking at the display.

  However, HILS requires a dedicated hardware device and has to be physically wired between it and a real ECU, so preparation is difficult. In addition, the test after replacing with another ECU also takes time since it must be physically reconnected. Furthermore, since the test is performed using a real ECU, real time is required for the test. Therefore, testing many scenarios takes a huge amount of time. In addition, a hardware device for HILS emulation is generally very expensive.

  Therefore, in recent years, there is a method of configuring with software without using an expensive emulation hardware device. This method is called SILS (Software In the Loop Simulation), and is a technique in which a microcomputer, an input / output circuit, a control scenario, etc. mounted on an ECU are all configured by a software simulator. According to this, the test can be executed without the ECU hardware.

  Here, an example in which an ECU emulator and a physical device simulator, particularly an engine simulator, cooperate will be described. Hereinafter, for the sake of convenience, the operation between the actual ECU and the engine will be described instead of the ECU emulator and the engine simulator. First, at a timing 30 degrees before the piston reaches top dead center in accordance with the rotation of the crankshaft, the engine interrupts the ECU. The ECU that has received the interrupt calculates the fuel injection timing and issues an injection instruction at that time. The engine receiving it injects fuel and then calculates the operation of the crank that rotates by inertia. When the piston reaches 30 degrees before the top dead center again, the engine causes an interruption to the ECU and notifies the ECU. Then, the ECU calculates the ignition timing and issues an instruction to the engine at that time. In response, the engine explodes the fuel in the cylinder and begins calculating a new rotation action. Such an operation is repeated.

  Thus, the operation in which the engine and the ECU move alternately is regarded as a critical path. Therefore, when simulating discrete events of an automobile in parallel, due to the presence of such a critical path, the parallelism cannot be sufficiently exhibited from the viewpoint of calculation performance. Therefore, even in the full vehicle HILS using a computer of a multiprocessor system, even if individual CPUs are assigned to a plurality of ECU emulators, in the worst case, a plurality of ECU emulators and engine emulators can be obtained with one CPU. May only be of a performance that can be calculated serially.

  The simplest method for operating a plurality of logical processes in parallel without contradiction is to operate each logical process in accordance with the entire command. However, in this method, since it is necessary to perform all synchronous processing even at the time when an event such as an interrupt does not occur, the processing load is large and the processing is slow.

  In the simulation of discrete events in which a plurality of logical processes are asynchronously operated in parallel, communication between processes is performed by transmitting and receiving time-stamped events as messages. At this time, the time stamp records a common time in the entire simulation system. If such a time is called a simulation clock, the timing at which the simulation clock is processed is independent in each logical process and does not necessarily have to coincide. However, when the logical processes cooperate to perform processing, it is necessary to always perform them in the order of time stamps. As long as the process proceeds in this way, the process can proceed in the same way as when the entire process is processed serially.

  One asynchronous process is conservative synchronization. This method always handles events with the oldest time stamp.

To explain an example of conservative synchronization, assume that a logical process has queues from two upstream processes, and an event having a time t ₁ and an event having a time t ₂ have arrived at one of the queues. Assume that time t ₁ is older than time t ₂ . Also assume that nothing has arrived in the other queue. Then, the logical process is likely to be processed in order from the event with time t ₁ , but an event with a time older than time t ₁ may reach the other queue from upstream, That is, since it is not guaranteed that the time t ₁ is the oldest, the process cannot proceed. In particular, in a configuration where there is a transmission / reception loop between logical processes, such a configuration may cause a deadlock.

  In order to avoid such a situation, a method using a null message is known. In this method, an upstream message with that time is sent to the downstream logical process to indicate that the upstream logical process will not generate an event until a certain time. Such a time is called the lower bound on the timestamp (LBTS). A downstream logical process that receives such an empty message compares the time stamp of the event that has arrived with its LBTS, and can process an event with an older time stamp as definite.

A method called optimistic synchronization has been devised as a method not using empty messages. In this method, a logical process has queues from two upstream processes, an event with time t ₁ and an event with time t ₂ have arrived, and time t ₁ is older than time t ₂ And when nothing has arrived in the other queue, the processing is performed assuming that the event having time t ₁ is the oldest for the time being. After that, when an event with a time older than time t ₁ arrives in the other queue, a series of processing starting from the event at the previous time t ₁ is canceled in order by sending a retroactive message (reverse message). Then, a new event having a time older than time t ₁ is processed. In this method, the event output from the logical process is not necessarily temporarily in accordance with the time stamp, but rollback ensures that the event is finally in accordance with the time stamp.

  In this way, events can be sent out in the correct order while avoiding deadlocks. However, with such a method, serialization of processes cannot be avoided, and thus the process cannot be accelerated.

  Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-161987 is intended to simulate ECU hardware and enable real machine evaluation by software. By switching matrix switches, a desired function can be obtained. Disclose to simulate hardware.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-14507 discloses a vehicle simulation apparatus that includes an engine control simulation device (ECU) and a vehicle control simulation device. To do. The ECU calculates the control parameter of the engine model and transmits the calculation result to the vehicle control simulation device. The vehicle control simulation device calculates a state quantity of each part of the vehicle model using control parameters sent from the ECU, and returns the calculation result to the ECU. The vehicle model includes a driver model, an intake system model, a fuel system model, a combustion system model, an engine temperature estimation model, a drive system model, a catalyst model, an A / F sensor model, and a rear O ₂ sensor model. The driver model has vehicle speed pattern input means for inputting a change pattern of the target vehicle speed.

  However, these documents do not mention a technique for synchronizing logical processes. Accordingly, the inventors of the present application presented a technique for speculatively emulating each ECU emulator in the Japanese Patent Application No. 2008-158995 filed on June 18, 2008. That is, according to the invention, in order to execute each logical process in parallel as much as possible without creating a critical path, even if an input event does not arrive in each logical process such as an ECU emulator or each physical device simulator. The process proceeds by predicting the input. By such speculative execution, processing parallelism is improved by performing processing in advance without waiting for the output of another logical process. So, if the actual input received late and the input when speculative execution was predicted do not match, the speculation execution failed and the status is returned to the previous time, The process is re-executed based on the actual input.

JP-A-6-161987 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-14507 Japanese Patent Application No. 2008-158995

  According to the technique described in the specification of Japanese Patent Application No. 2008-158995, it has become possible to perform a high-speed simulation without being restricted by the seriality of operations in the full vehicle SILS.

  However, there is still a problem, that is, in the simulation, how to strike a balance between accuracy and speed is always a problem, but within the scope of the technique described in Japanese Patent Application No. 2008-158895, There was not much room for adjustment.

  An object of the present invention is to further improve the technique described in Japanese Patent Application No. 2008-158995.

  More specifically, it is an object of the present invention to provide a technique for adjusting between accuracy and speed in a simulation system such as a full vehicle SILS.

  For implementing the present invention, a multi-CPU workstation is preferably provided, although it is not essential. In addition, a software emulator for each ECU is prepared. In general, an ECU software emulator is available from the ECU manufacturer.

  Each ECU's software emulator preferably interfaces with a predetermined layer of the workstation's operating system to run on a multi-CPU workstation. Preferably, each of the multi-CPUs is assigned to a software emulator of each ECU, so that each ECU emulator can operate independently by each CPU. When the number of CPUs is smaller than the number of ECUs, a plurality of ECU emulators are assigned to one CPU. In any case, the operating system allocates one process for each ECU emulator, so that each ECU emulator can perform emulation so that it operates with a different clock. That is, each ECU emulator may be a heterogeneous ECU.

  A part of the memory of the workstation is allocated to each ECU emulator as a private memory for internal processing. Furthermore, the ECU emulator can also access a portion allocated as a shared memory of the workstation, and through this shared memory, each ECU emulator exchanges data, synchronizes, and communicates with each other. It is possible. Alternatively, the ECU emulator may be connected by a CAN (controller area network) emulator.

  Physical device simulators such as engine simulators and transmission simulators that receive inputs from these ECU emulators are prepared, and are also connected to the ECU emulators using a shared memory of a workstation or a CAN (controller area network) emulator.

In the present invention, each ECU emulator is speculatively emulated. That is, here, the ECU emulator and each physical device simulator are called logical processes. According to the present invention, each logical process is executed in order to execute each logical process in parallel as much as possible without creating a critical path. Even if an input event has not arrived, the input is predicted and the process proceeds. For example, the event timestamp t _1, after processing the event time stamp t ₂ from the input so far, we expect the event timestamp t ₃ comes, prior speculative its processing To run.

  By such speculative execution, processing parallelism is improved by performing processing in advance without waiting for the output of another logical process. Then, if the actual input received late and the input when speculative execution was predicted do not match, the speculation execution failed and the status is returned to the previous time ( Rollback), and the process is re-executed based on the actual input. Such speculative execution is particularly effective for a discrete event simulation such as an automobile in which input prediction is easy.

  According to the feature of the present invention, when determining a match between an actual input received with a delay and an input when predicting and executing speculation, an error or tolerance of the match determination can be adjusted. That is, if the tolerance is increased, the frequency at which it is determined that the actual input received with a delay is the same as the input when the speculative execution is predicted is increased, and thus the frequency of rollback is reduced. Simulation can be speeded up. However, if the tolerance is excessively widened, the simulation proceeds with an inaccurate value, and the accuracy of the simulation decreases.

  On the other hand, if the tolerance is narrowed, it can only be judged that the actual input received late and the input when the speculative execution is predicted and the input is quite close, so the accuracy of the simulation is improves. However, since the frequency of rollback increases accordingly, the simulation speed decreases.

  In order to set such a match determination error, according to the present invention, it is preferable to execute a simulation for a certain period in advance to predict the actual input received in a delayed manner for each logical process. The difference in input at the time of speculative execution is recorded as a histogram together with the frequency, for example, on a computer memory. The histogram is then converted to a cumulative histogram and stored again in computer memory.

  Such a cumulative histogram of errors is stored for each logical process, and the operator preferably sets a single 100-percentage value as a threshold, and the set threshold is set via a common memory area or the like. Provided to the entire logical process.

  Each logical process matches the received threshold value, which is a 100-percentage rate, with its cumulative histogram to obtain the actual input and the value of the input tolerance when it is speculated and predicted. Then, after that, with the tolerance, in the subsequent simulation, it is determined whether the actual input received with a delay coincides with the input when the speculative execution is predicted. .

  According to the present invention, in a simulation system such as a full vehicle SILS, a technique is provided for adjusting between the accuracy and speed of simulation by an operator's operation.

  The configuration and processing of an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In the following description, the same elements are referred to by the same reference numerals throughout the drawings unless otherwise specified. It should be understood that the configuration and processing described here are described as an example, and the technical scope of the present invention is not intended to be limited to this example.

  Before describing the configuration for realizing the present invention, the ECU will be described as a premise thereof. The ECU generally includes an input interface for A / D conversion, for example, an input interface from a sensor, a logical operation unit (microcomputer) that processes a digital input signal in accordance with a predetermined logic, and the processing result as an actuator. And an output interface for converting into an operation signal.

  For convenience of explanation, the present invention will be described below in connection with an ECU of an automobile. However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and it should be understood that the present invention can be applied to general mechatronic mechanisms having other ECUs such as an aircraft and a robot. .

  The ECU detects the surroundings, the environmental state, the state of the driving mechanism such as the engine, and the content of the instruction operation by a human with a sensor and inputs it as a signal. Specifically, signals from a water temperature sensor, intake air temperature sensor, boost pressure sensor, pump angle sensor, crank angle sensor, vehicle speed sensor, accelerator position sensor, A / T shift position, starter switch, air conditioner ECU, etc. is there.

  The ECU inputs these signals and outputs signals for driving the electromagnetic spill valve, fuel cut solenoid, timing control valve, intake throttle VSV, glow plug relay, tachometer, air conditioner relay, etc. .

  Although it is not impossible for one ECU to output drive signals for controlling a plurality of different mechanisms, for example, an engine and an air conditioner that have different responsiveness and strict control. It is not rational to control with a single ECU. Therefore, in general, a plurality of ECUs are provided in an automobile.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a feedback closed loop system that is a typical control of the ECU. That is, in FIG. 1, a target signal is input to a controller 102 that is an ECU, and the ECU internally processes the target signal to output a drive signal, which is a model to be controlled, such as a plant such as an engine. The output of the plant 104 is fed back to the input of the controller 102 via the sensor 106.

  The target signal given here is, for example, throttle opening, idle control, brake force, shift, starter ON / OFF, battery voltage, injection energization time, number of times of injection energization, deposit, dwell angle, advance value, The parameters are an intake completion flag, ignition completion flag, atmospheric pressure, vehicle weight, rolling resistance coefficient, road gradient, adhesion coefficient, intake air temperature, and the like.

Also, feedback of sensor signals includes throttle opening, intake pressure, intake air amount, shift, engine speed, vehicle speed, exhaust temperature, O ₂ , cooling water temperature, air-fuel ratio, knock, ignition abnormality, etc. .

  An object controlled by the ECU is a mechanical system solved by Newton's dynamic equation, an electric drive circuit solved by a response equation of an electric circuit, or a combination thereof. These are basically differential equations and can be described by being converted into a response function by Laplace transform according to control engineering.

  FIG. 2 is an example of such a response function description. 2 corresponds to the controller 102 in FIG. 1, the portion surrounded by the broken line 204 corresponds to the control target model 104 in FIG. 1, and the sensor 106 corresponds to the block 206. Note that FIG. 2 is an example of expression by a response function, and it should be understood that the present invention is not particularly limited.

  Now, for example, it is assumed that an object controlled by the ECU is a mechanical system that is solved by Newton's dynamic equation. Then, the control output of the ECU at a certain time has internal state variables such as the position and speed of the movable part of the mechanical system, and is not determined only by the input at that time. This also applies to the electric circuit, and there are still internal state variables such as the amount of charge remaining in the capacitor of the electric circuit and the magnetic force due to the inductance of the coil.

  Accordingly, as shown in FIG. 3, the ECU outputs a value y that takes into account the internal state x with respect to the input u.

  Now, for the purpose of the test such as SILS described above, an auto parts manufacturer provides a software emulator for ECU of equipment provided by the auto part manufacturer. That is, the functions shown in FIG. 2 are realized purely in software by an executable program obtained by assembling or compiling a code written in a language such as assembler or C.

  In this embodiment of the present invention, the internal state of the software emulator of the ECU is taken out and used. Depending on the software emulator, there are a case where the internal state can be taken out and a case where the internal state cannot be taken out as it is.

  Therefore, when the internal state of the software emulator of the ECU cannot be taken out as it is, the following processing is performed by the source code analysis tool.

  If the source code of the ECU software emulator is available, it is used as it is, and if there is only an executable binary file, it is disassembled or decompiled with a predetermined tool. Then, a technique called data flow analysis is applied to the source code of the ECU software emulator to divide the source code into basic blocks. A basic block is a portion of the source code that is divided where a plurality of controls merge or where the control branches into a plurality. When such a basic block is used as a node and connected by a link of the control flow of the branch, a directed graph structure is obtained. This is also called a control flow graph. The control flow graph has a start point node and an end point node, and all nodes that can be executed by the program have valid edges from the start point node. In the basic block, all control end nodes including exit () and return statements have a valid edge to the end node.

  Next, Use / Def analysis is performed on all possible paths of the start and end nodes of the control flow graph. Here, “Use” means a case where a variable is used to store a value in another variable. Typically, it is the right side of an assignment expression. Def means that a value is stored in a certain variable. Typically, it is the left side of an assignment expression.

  In this case, for each path, it is checked whether there is a variable that is used before Def or without Def, that is, there is an undefined reference variable. If there is an undefined reference variable, the variable name is temporarily Saved.

  Thus, a wrapper code is generated using a variable name stored after all paths have been scanned, as will be described later.

  By the way, execution flow scanning and use / def analysis can be executed more efficiently by using a technique called data flow analysis.

  The first step is the calculation of the def list in each basic block. Specifically, a list of variables used in the entire program is expressed by 1 bit, and a variable defined for each basic block is expressed by a bit vector where 0 is not set.

  The second step is the calculation of the reachable def list for the entire program. That is, in each basic block, when there are a plurality of inputs, the logical product (AND) is performed and then input to itself. The output from itself takes the logical sum (OR) of the input and the def list defined by itself, and passes it to the subsequent basic block. As the order of execution, the depth priority order on the control flow graph is efficient.

  The third step is to obtain a reachable def list closure by a closure analysis algorithm. Then, the second step is repeated until the output def lists of all basic blocks are not changed. Here, the closure is a value associated with the environment.

  The fourth step is the discovery of the use of undefined variables. That is, a variable in which the input def list of each basic block is expressed as 0 is used as a use.

  For a more detailed explanation of data flow analysis, see Alfred V. Aho, Ravi Sethi, Jeffrey D. Ullman, "Compilers Principles, Technologies, and Tools", Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1986, p. 608-633. Please refer.

  For example, it is assumed that the original ECU simulation source code is represented by a function Func (x, y, z). Also assume that a and b are registered as undefined reference variables.

Then, for example, a function _Func (x, y, z, _a, _b) is prepared,
_Func (x, y, z, _a, _b)
{
a = _a;
b = _b;
Func (x, y, z);
_a = a;
_b = b;
return;
}

_Func (x, y, z, _a, _b)
{
a = _a;
b = _b;
Is called the input wrapper code,
_a = a;
_b = b;
return;
}
This part is called an output wrapper code.

  Note that Func (x, y, z); may be inlined, not a function call. By calling the function _Func (x, y, z, _a, _b) with appropriate values in _a and _b, the internal state of Func (x, y, z) can be set. In addition, as a result of calling _Func (x, y, z, _a, _b), the value of the internal state after processing is set in _a, _b, so save those values separately if necessary Etc. are available. The source code with wrapper code in this way is compiled or assembled to produce an executable program.

  Also, depending on the specifications of a specific processing language such as C ++, the reference operator & may be used as _Func (x, y, z, & _ a, & _ b) instead of _Func (x, y, z, _a, _b). Sometimes it is necessary to give it as an argument to the function.

  FIG. 4 schematically shows the software emulator of the ECU after the internal state or internal variable can be extracted in this way. As shown there, the software emulator 402 of the ECU is conveniently separated into a portion indicating the internal logic f and an internal state or state variable x.

  Then, the output y = f (t, x, u,...) Can be described using the internal logic f. Where t is time. In addition, since the code related to the state variable x is separated, the state variable x and preferably the input u are also stored in the hard disk drive as the state repository 404 at an arbitrary time point, that is, typically at the timing when output is performed. Can be exported.

  This is not the only effect of separating the code related to the state variable x. That is, as indicated by an arrow 406, the state variable x can be set in the software emulator 402 at an arbitrary time. Thereby, by selecting and setting the input and the state variable x from the state repository 404, the ECU software emulator 402 is returned to the state at an arbitrary time when the state variable x is written in the state repository 404. From there, you can redo the calculation.

  Next, computer hardware used to implement the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 5, a plurality of CPU0 504a, CPU1 504b, CPU2 504c, and CPU3 504d are connected to the host bus 502. Further connected to the host bus 502 is a main memory 506 for arithmetic processing of the CPU0 504a, CPU1 504b, CPU2 504c, and CPU3 504d.

  On the other hand, a keyboard 510, a mouse 512, a display 514, and a hard disk drive 516 are connected to the I / O bus 508. The I / O bus 508 is connected to the host bus 502 via the I / O bridge 518. The keyboard 510 and the mouse 512 are used by an operator to enter commands or click menus to perform operations. The display 514 is used to display a screen image for operating a program according to the present invention to be described later using a GUI.

  IBM (R) System X is the preferred computer system hardware used for this purpose. At that time, the CPU0 504a, the CPU1 504b, the CPU2 504c, and the CPU3 504d are, for example, Intel® Core 2 DUO, and the operating system is Windows (trademark) Server 2003. The operating system is stored in the hard disk drive 516 and is read from the hard disk drive 516 into the main memory 506 when the computer system is started.

  Note that the hardware of the computer system that can be used to implement the present invention is not limited to the IBM (R) System X, and any computer computer can be used as long as it can run an ECU emulator program. The system can be used. The operating system is not limited to Windows (R), and any operating system such as Linux (R) or Mac OS (R) can be used. Further, in order to operate the ECU emulator program at high speed, a computer system such as IBM (R) System P whose operating system is AIX (trademark) based on POWER (trademark) 6 may be used.

  The hard disk drive 516 further stores a plurality of ECU emulator programs for testing, and a program according to the present invention for cooperating and testing the plurality of ECU emulator programs. The mouse 512 can be activated.

  Preferably, in order to realize full vehicle SILS, emulator programs of all ECUs used in one automobile are stored in the hard disk drive 516. If the ECU emulator program cannot extract an internal state variable as it is, the state variable can be set and extracted in advance by covering the above-described wrapper code.

  The hard disk drive 516 further includes a scheduler for an ECU emulator program to be described later, a physical device (plant) simulator program such as an engine, a transmission, a steering, and a wiper, and a global for synchronizing inputs of the entire system. A scheduler and a scenario generator program that stores various test scenarios such as climbing slopes, highways, and zigzag roads are also stored.

  Note that the terms “emulator” and “simulator” are used properly here, but the ECU code originally written on the assumption that it runs on another processor is targeted for CPU0 to CPU3, etc. Making it run is called emulation, and the program that does it is called an emulator. On the other hand, a system that virtually calculates the operation of a physical system such as an engine is called a simulator.

  Next, a functional logic block diagram of the simulation system of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 6, the shared memory 602 may actually be a part of the main memory 506 shown in FIG. In the shared memory 602, ECU emulator programs 604a, 604b,... 604n, a global scheduler 608, and physical device simulator programs 606a,.

  The global scheduler 608 is based on the time stamps of events between the ECU emulator programs 604a, 604b,... 604n and the physical device simulator programs 606a,. Operate to maintain. A more detailed operation of the global scheduler 608 will be described later.

  The ECU emulator programs 604a, 604b,... 604n correspond to the control of different parts of the car, such as the engine, brake, transmission, steering, etc., and each operates with a clock with a different speed. It is assumed that the emulator emulator program that operates also operates at a proportional clock ratio.

As an example, a code for assigning an ECU emulator program to a plurality of CPUs by creating a thread will be described by taking C language as an example.
void * ecu_wrapper (void * parm)
{
...
/ * define state_repository * /
...
LOOP_BEGIN:
...
/ * Perform ECU unit processing * /
LOOP_END:
...
}

Prepare code like the above,
pthread_t thread_id;
pthread_attr_t thread_attr;
pthread_attr_init (&thread_attr);
pthread_create (& thread_id, thread_attr, ecu_wrapper, NULL);
pthread_attr_destroy (&thread_attr);
Then, the operating system creates a thread and assigns it to the emulator program of the ECU. Physically, the thread is assigned to one of CPU0 to CPU3, but it is left to the operating system and is transparent to the emulator program.
Such allocation processing is performed individually for each of the ECU emulator programs 604a, 604b,.

  6, the ECU emulator programs 604a, 604b,... 604n, the physical device simulator programs 606a,... 606m, and the global scheduler 608 use the shared memory 602 for data. However, a CAN (controller area network) emulator may be used instead.

  Although not shown in the figure, a scenario generator storing various test scenarios such as an uphill road, a highway, and a zigzag road is also connected to the configuration of FIG.

  FIG. 7 shows a more detailed logic block diagram inside the ECU emulator program 604. Here, the ECU emulator programs 604a, 604b,... 604n, etc. will be generically described as the ECU emulator program 604.

  The ECU emulator control logic module 702 is a main body including the original logic of a so-called ECU emulator.

  The rollback table 704 has a function of sequentially storing internal state variables extracted from the control logic module 702 by the above-described wrapper code addition method.

  The local scheduler 706 has a function of returning the ECU emulator program 604 to a desired state by writing the internal state variable stored in the rollback table 704 back to the control logic module 702.

  The control logic module 702 is provided with an event input from the shared memory 602 via the communication interface module 708.

  The ECU emulator program 604 further includes a determination block 710, a threshold block 712, and a prediction block 714 as functional blocks.

  The threshold value block 712 holds a cumulative histogram of allowable error values serving as a reference that is regarded as a match between the actual input to be received and the input when the speculative execution is predicted. The input when the speculative execution is predicted is selected according to the time stamp from the input recorded in the rollback table 704. This cumulative histogram is stored in a memory area dedicated to the ECU emulator program 604 on the main memory 506 or a predetermined area on the hard disk 516. The cumulative histogram creation process will be described later.

  The prediction block 714 gives an input when the speculation is executed by prediction. In this embodiment, basically, the same input as the previous input is given as a speculative execution input.

  The decision block 710 compares the received actual input with the input when the speculative execution is predicted. At this time, the value provided from the threshold block 712 is used as an allowable error, and when the difference between the received actual input and the input value when the speculative execution is predicted is within the allowable error range, they match. If not, give a discrepancy decision.

  Although not shown, the ECU emulator 604 has a queue for temporarily storing input events. The queue may be provided in the local scheduler 706 or in a dedicated private memory area in the main memory 506.

  For example, the output of the air conditioner ECU is input to the engine ECU. This is because it is necessary to adjust the power generation amount by changing the engine speed according to the driving state of the air conditioner.

  The communication interface module 708 sends the output from the control logic module 702 to the shared memory 702 or a CAN (controller area network) emulator (not shown).

Next, the concept of the error distribution recorded in the threshold block 710 of the ECU emulator 604 will be described. Statistically, the case where the speculative input error follows an exponential distribution is shown.
The graph of the probability density function f (x) = μe− ^μx of the exponential distribution is as shown in FIG. That is, the smaller the error, the higher the occurrence probability.

FIG. 9 shows a graph of the cumulative distribution function F (x) = 1−e− ^μx of the exponential distribution. According to this cumulative distribution function, as shown in the figure, if a percentage is given, an allowable error ε is obtained.

  FIG. 10A is a histogram of an error between an actual input received and an input value when speculatively executed by prediction in a certain ECU emulator. The horizontal axis is the error x, and the vertical axis is the frequency. Such a histogram is recorded for each ECU as follows. First, simulation processing is performed with an allowable error of 0. A specific simulation process will be described later in detail with reference to FIG.

Thus, every time an actual input is given, the absolute value of the predicted value and the input value
| Predicted value-Actual value | is calculated. In accordance with the value, the counter of bins divided in advance into a range of equal intervals Δ is incremented. That is, the absolute value x of the predicted value and the input value is
When satisfying i * Δ <= x <(i + 1) * Δ (i = 0, 1,..., N−1), the counter corresponding to i * Δ is incremented by one.

  As a result, a histogram with equal intervals Δ increments as shown in FIG. Such calculation is once completed when sufficient accuracy of the histogram is obtained, and is switched to a threshold value based on the cumulative histogram calculated below.

  The sufficient accuracy of the histogram is obtained when the number of observations is sufficiently large. Further, it means that a certain number (for example, 20) of samples whose absolute value of the difference from the predicted value is larger than the threshold value. It is that it exceeded. More generally speaking, if the number of samples whose absolute value of the difference from the predicted value is larger than the threshold is M, it means that the number obtained by dividing the square root of M by the total number of samples N is sufficiently small.

The counter corresponding to the delta _i, When h [i], in order to obtain the cumulative histogram, calculates the following c [i]. In the following, the C language notation is used as an example. Here, h [i] is an integer, while c [i] is a floating point number.
c [0] = h [0];
for (i = 1; i <N; i ++) // cumulative value calculation
c [i] = c [i-1] + h [i];
for (i = 0; i <N; i ++) // Normalize by total c [N-1]
c [i] / = c [N-1];

  As a result, when c [i] are arranged in the order of i = 0, 1, 2,..., N−1, a cumulative histogram asymptotic to 1 is obtained as shown in FIG.

Thus, when a cumulative histogram is obtained, given a value p ∈ [0,1],
i satisfying c [i] <= p <c [i + 1] is obtained, and threshold ε is determined by ε = i * Δ. However, if p <c [0], ε = 0. Of course, such calculation is automatically calculated by a computer with reference to a cumulative histogram on a memory.

As shown in FIG. 11, such a normalized cumulative histogram is individually recorded and calculated for each ECU # 1, ECU # 2,..., ECU #n, and stored. As can be seen, since the actual input and the error characteristics of the input when speculatively executed are different for each ECU, the cumulative histogram curve is also different for each ECU. Therefore, the cumulative histogram of each of ECU # 1, ECU # 2,..., ECU _#n returns different threshold _values ε ₁ , ε ₂ ,.

  FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a graphic user interface (GUI) for an operator to set a threshold value. In this GUI, the scale 1202 has a scale from 0 to 100, and the number between 0 and 100 is set as accuracy by shifting the slider 1204 by dragging the mouse 512 (FIG. 5). The set accuracy is displayed in the display area 1206. The GUI displayed here is only an example for setting a threshold value. Any GUI that is determined to be appropriate by those skilled in the art, such as simply typing a number in a text field or using a well-known up / down controller interface, is used. It should be understood that the interface can be used. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that such a GUI can be created using an appropriate Win32 API in Windows®. The same applies to other operating systems and is not a feature of the present invention.

  Now, assuming that the number set here is P, the value p calculated as p = P / 100, as shown in FIG. 13, is the ECU # 1 604a, ECU # 2 604b, ... provided to threshold block 712 (FIG. 7) of ECU #n 604n. As a method of providing parameters, there are a method of placing an ECU emulator in a predetermined area of the common memory 602 and a method of communicating as a broadcast message by a global scheduler 608 described later. It should be noted that the method of giving numerical parameters in the GUI described here is only an example, and other variations will occur to those skilled in the art. For example, the value between 0.0 and 1.0, which is the value of p, may be directly specified by the scale 1202 and the slider 1204.

  FIG. 14 is a flowchart of the threshold setting process. In step 1402, an event indicating whether or not the slider 1204 shown in FIG. 12 has been moved is waited. If the slider 1204 is moved by a mouse operation or the like, the value of the position indicated by the slider 1204 is read in step 1404. . Since the set value is not determined while the slider 1204 is moved, the position value may be read in response to an event that the slider 1204 is not moved for a certain time after the slider 1204 is moved.

  In step 1406, the set value p is sent to each ECU emulator.

In step 1408, each ECU emulator from the transmitted value p, is referred to the cumulative histogram stored in the ECU emulators, epsilon ₁ in FIG. 11, epsilon _2, is shown such as · · · epsilon _n , The error ε is determined.

  Further, in step 1408, the error ε set in this way is set in the threshold block 712 (FIG. 7) and used for the subsequent simulation processing.

  Next, the process of the ECU emulator will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. Most of the processing here is mainly performed by the local scheduler 706 shown in FIG. First, in step 1502 of FIG. 15, it is determined whether an event has arrived in the queue from another logical process. If there is an event in the queue, in step 1504 the oldest event e is retrieved. Let t be the time stamp of this event e.

In step 1506, it is determined whether an entry with t = t _k is in the rollback table. As shown in FIG. 16, the rollback table is composed of a time stamp, an input event, an output event, an internal state, and a confirmation flag. It is written in an area in the memory 506. It may be written to the hard disk drive 516 instead of the main memory 506.

  As can be seen from FIG. 16, the rollback table has two entries. One is an entry for an input event, and only the time stamp column and the input event column are valid.

  The other is an output event entry, which is an output time stamp column, an output event, an internal state at that time, and a confirmation flag. Keeping the internal state in the rollback table is advantageous for restarting the calculation from the middle. It should be noted that the logic of the emulator that originally had the internal state implicitly can be changed to the logic that is extracted outside as the state variable by the wrapper code technique described above.

If there is an entry having t = t _k in the rollback table, if the entry is e _k , whether or not e = e _k is determined in step 1508. This comparison is performed by referring to the allowable error value ε set in the threshold block 712 by the decision block 710 shown in FIG. The decision that e = e _k is
If | e−e _k | <ε, processing is performed so that the decision at decision block 1508 is affirmative. A positive determination at step 1508 means that the system assumes that the previous speculative execution was successful. Therefore, the processing returns to the first step 1502. If e = e _k is not considered even if the allowable error value ε is considered, that is,
If | e−e _k |> = ε, the process proceeds to Step 1510.

If it is determined in step 1506 that the entry having t = t _k is not in the rollback table, the process returns to the fixed time T in step 1510, and the entry in the rollback table having a later time is deleted. Is done. In FIG. 16, the entry is below the dotted line. The fixed time T is notified by the processing of the global scheduler 608 described later.

  In step 1512, a new entry is created from time t and event e and inserted into the rollback table.

  In step 1514, a new event process is performed by the control logic module 702 using the internal state of the confirmed entry. The internal state here is shown as a state variable in FIG.

  In step 1516, the output event generated as a result of the event processing is inserted into the rollback table. In step 1518, the output event is sent via the communication interface module 708 to a predetermined physical device simulator. As for this sending method, in the case of the shared memory system, a signal is written at a specific memory address, and in the CAN emulator system, a header including a predetermined destination is added to the message to be sent. Such processing is performed by the communication interface module 708 shown in FIG. Then, the process returns to step 1502.

  If it is determined in step 1502 that there are no events in the queue, then in step 1520 a new input event is predicted by the prediction block 714 of FIG. For example, in the case of an ECU emulator for an engine simulator, it is predicted that an event will arrive almost periodically. In accordance with the prediction, in step 1522 the predicted new event is queued, and the process proceeds to step 1502. Return.

  If processing based on prediction is continuously performed while no event arrives in the queue, entries that are not determined may occupy the rollback table, and the size thereof may become huge. To prevent this, an upper limit is set on the number of indoubt entries in the rollback table, and the system is adjusted so as not to exceed the upper limit. Also, the confirmed entries are discarded except for the last one so that unnecessary entries do not press the rollback table size.

  As shown in FIG. 17, the global scheduler 608 has queues Q1 to Qn for each of the logical processes LP # 1 to LP # N. Each of the logical processes is any of ECU emulators # 1 to #n and physical device simulators # 1 to #m shown in FIG.

  In the queues Q1 to Qn, events come from the corresponding logical processes LP # 1 to LP # N as needed, and the incoming events are temporarily stored in the queue. The global scheduler 608 outputs a fixed event and a fixed time based on the events stored in the queues Q1 to Qn.

  FIG. 18 is a flowchart showing the process of the global scheduler 608 for that purpose. In step 1802, the global scheduler 608 waits for a new event to arrive in any of the queues Q1-Qn (FIG. 17).

  In step 1804, it is determined whether an event has arrived in an empty queue, otherwise processing returns to step 1802.

  If it is determined in step 1804 that an event has arrived in an empty queue, the process goes to step 1806 where it is determined whether all queues Q1-Qn have at least one event. Otherwise, the process returns to step 1802.

  If it is determined in step 1806 that all queues Q1-Qn have at least one event, in step 1808, the oldest event is found in all queues Q1-Qn. This is possible because all events are time stamped.

  In step 1810, the oldest event found is determined as a confirmed event, and is notified to the logical processes LP # 1 to LP # N.

  In step 1812, the confirmed event is removed from the queue. Then, returning to step 1802, the global scheduler 608 waits for the arrival of the next event.

  A simulation scenario by the system of this embodiment is as follows. It is assumed that there is no error histogram data as shown in FIG. 11 at the initial stage. Then, at first, the simulation is performed with the tolerance 0. While performing the simulation, the difference between the actual input to be received and the input when the speculative execution is predicted is calculated at the comparison in step 1508 in FIG. 15. By recording this, the error histogram data is recorded. Will accumulate.

  Initially, since the allowable error is 0, when a certain number of samples (for example, 100) are gathered, each ECU emulator performs processing for converting the error histogram into a cumulative histogram as shown in FIG. . This is preferably done automatically by computer processing.

  Once the cumulative histogram is configured in each ECU emulator as shown in FIG. 11, the allowable error can be set by the GUI shown in FIG.

  The operator starts the simulation with zero tolerance. Then, since there is a relatively high possibility that the determination in step 1508 of FIG. 15 will be NO, rollback occurs in step 1510 and subsequent steps, and the simulation speed decreases.

  From there, when the operator gradually increases the tolerance from the tolerance 0 by the GUI shown in FIG. 12 (this means that in FIG. 12, the slider 1204 is gradually shifted from the scale 0 to the right. ), The allowable error ε increases, and the possibility of the determination in step 1508 of FIG. 15 becoming YES gradually increases. Then, since the frequency of proceeding to rollback is reduced after step 1510, the simulation speed is improved as a result. To do.

  Thus, when the allowable error is increased, a phenomenon is observed in which the simulation result changes suddenly at a certain allowable error value. It makes an assumption that the necessary rollback has not occurred. Then, since the correct simulation result can no longer be obtained, it means that the tolerance value needs to be reduced.

  By such processing, the operator can select and set an optimum tolerance in terms of both simulation speed and simulation accuracy.

  In the above embodiment, for each ECU emulator, a normalized cumulative histogram is created for the error between the actual input and the input when predicted and speculatively executed, and this corresponds to a common percentage for this. Although the simulation is performed with the allowable error value, depending on the nature of the simulation, the allowable error value may be set directly and individually for each ECU emulator.

  However, as in recent years, in a system in which 30 to 50 ECUs are mounted on a single automobile, optimum tolerance values are individually set for individual ECU emulators at the discretion of the operator. Is assumed to be quite difficult and difficult. This is because the operator does not know the characteristics of each ECU emulator.

  Therefore, creating individual ECU emulators with normalized cumulative histograms as in the above embodiment absorbs differences in the characteristics of individual ECU emulators, with a single common percentage parameter, This is advantageous in that it makes it possible to set the tolerance values individually.

  Although specific embodiments of the present invention have been described above in connection with a test system including a plurality of ECU emulators for automobiles, the present invention is not limited to such specific embodiments, and is not limited to airplanes. Those skilled in the art will understand that the present invention can be applied to a general electromechanical control system test system, such as a test system including an ECU emulator.

It is a figure which shows the example of the feedback closed loop system which is typical control of ECU. It is an example of the description by a response function of a feedback closed loop system. It is a figure which shows the time transition of the clock response of ECU software emulator. It is a block diagram of the software emulator of ECU after it became possible to take out an internal variable. FIG. 2 is a block diagram of computer hardware used to implement the present invention. It is a functional logic block diagram of the simulation system of this invention. It is a more detailed logic block diagram inside the ECU emulator program. It is a figure which shows an exponential distribution. It is a figure which shows the cumulative distribution of exponential distribution. It is a figure which shows the frequency histogram of an error, and its accumulation histogram. It is a figure which shows the accumulation histogram for every ECU. It is a figure which shows GUI of a precision setting. It is a figure which shows the mode of the precision parameter setting with respect to each ECU emulator. It is a figure which shows the flowchart of an accuracy setting process. It is a figure which shows the flowchart of a process of ECU emulator. It is a figure which shows the entry of the rollback table | surface of ECU emulator. It is a figure which shows the queue of a global scheduler. It is a flowchart of a process of a global scheduler.

Claims (20)

A system for simulating a physical device system controlled by a plurality of electronic control units,
A physical system simulator
A plurality of electronic control unit emulators that emulate each of a plurality of electronic control units to receive a timed input event and provide a timed output event input to the physical device system simulator And
The electronic control unit emulator has a queue for storing the input event,
Means for sequentially recording the input event of the electronic control unit emulator, its time stamp and the output event as a rollback table;
Retrieving an input event from the queue, determining whether there is an entry in the rollback table that matches the time stamp of the input event, and in response, in response to the retrieved input event and the rollback The input event having the time stamp in the table is compared within a range of a predetermined allowable error value, and in response to the determination that they match, the simulation process does not proceed without going back to the entry. In response, means for outputting an output event calculated by the electronic control unit emulator based on an input event of the traced entry, going back to the entry regarded as confirmed in the rollback table;
Means for changing the predetermined tolerance value,
Simulation system.   The means for changing the predetermined tolerance value is a percentage value relative to a normalized cumulative histogram of errors between the input events retrieved from the queue and the corresponding input events in the rollback table. The simulation system of claim 1, wherein the tolerance value is obtained by applying   The output from the electronic control unit emulator and the output from the physical device simulator are held, and the oldest output time is notified to the electronic control unit emulator and the physical device simulator as a fixed time. The simulation system of claim 1, further comprising a global scheduler.   The simulation system according to claim 3, wherein an entry considered to be confirmed in the rollback table is determined by notification of the confirmed time by the global scheduler.   The simulation system according to claim 1, wherein the electronic control unit emulator, the physical device simulator, and the global scheduler are connected by a common memory.   The simulation system according to claim 1, wherein the electronic control unit emulator, the physical device simulator, and the global scheduler are connected by a CAN emulator. A method for simulating by a computer a physical device system controlled by a plurality of electronic control units, comprising:
Loading a physical device system simulator executable by the computer;
Each of the plurality of electronic control units is electronically configured to receive an input event with a time, have a queue for storing the input event, and provide an output event with a time that is input to the physical device system simulator. A step of loading a plurality of electronic control unit emulators to be executable by the computer, and sequentially recording the input events of the electronic control unit emulators, their type stamps and the output events as a rollback table. Steps,
Retrieving an input event from the queue, determining whether there is an entry in the rollback table that matches the time stamp of the input event, and in response, in response to the retrieved input event and the rollback The input event having the time stamp in the table is compared within a range of a predetermined allowable error value, and in response to the determination that they match, the simulation process does not proceed without going back to the entry. In response, outputting the output event calculated by the electronic control unit emulator based on the input event of the traced entry, going back to the entry regarded as confirmed in the rollback table;
Changing the predetermined tolerance value in response to an operator operation;
Simulation method.   The step of changing the predetermined tolerance value applies a percentage value to the normalized cumulative histogram of the error between the input event taken from the queue and the corresponding input event in the rollback table. The simulation method according to claim 7, wherein an allowable error value is obtained.   The output from the electronic control unit emulator and the output from the physical device simulator are held, and the oldest output time is notified to the electronic control unit emulator and the physical device simulator as a fixed time. The simulation method according to claim 7, further comprising a step.   The simulation method according to claim 9, wherein an entry considered to be confirmed in the rollback table is determined by notification of the confirmation time.   In response to the presence of an input event in the queue and an entry in the rollback table that matches the input event time stamp, the method further includes the step of determining whether there is an input event in the queue. The simulation method according to claim 7.   The simulation method according to claim 7, wherein the electronic control unit emulator and the physical device simulator are connected by a common memory.   The simulation method according to claim 7, wherein the electronic control unit emulator and the physical device simulator are connected by a CAN emulator. A program for simulating by a computer a physical device system controlled by a plurality of electronic control units,
The computer,
Loading a physical device system simulator executable by the computer;
Each of the plurality of electronic control units is electronically configured to receive an input event with a time, have a queue for storing the input event, and provide an output event with a time that is input to the physical device system simulator. A step of loading a plurality of electronic control unit emulators to be executable by the computer, and sequentially recording the input events of the electronic control unit emulators, their type stamps and the output events as a rollback table. Steps,
Retrieving an input event from the queue, determining whether there is an entry in the rollback table that matches the time stamp of the input event, and in response, in response to the retrieved input event and the rollback The input event having the time stamp in the table is compared within a range of a predetermined allowable error value, and in response to the determination that they match, the simulation process does not proceed without going back to the entry. In response, outputting the output event calculated by the electronic control unit emulator based on the input event of the traced entry, going back to the entry regarded as confirmed in the rollback table;
In response to an operation by an operator, the step of changing the predetermined tolerance value is executed.
Simulation program.   The step of changing the predetermined tolerance value applies a percentage value to the normalized cumulative histogram of the error between the input event taken from the queue and the corresponding input event in the rollback table. The simulation program according to claim 14, wherein an allowable error value is obtained.   The output from the electronic control unit emulator and the output from the physical device simulator are held, and the oldest output time is notified to the electronic control unit emulator and the physical device simulator as a fixed time. The simulation program according to claim 14, further comprising a step.   The simulation program according to claim 16, wherein an entry considered to be confirmed in the rollback table is determined by notification of the confirmed time.   In response to the presence of an input event in the queue and an entry in the rollback table that matches the time stamp of the input event, the method further includes the step of returning to determining whether there is an input event in the queue. The simulation program according to claim 14, which is executed by a computer.   15. The simulation program according to claim 14, wherein the electronic control unit emulator and the physical device simulator are connected by a common memory.   15. The simulation program according to claim 14, wherein the electronic control unit emulator and the physical device simulator are connected by a CAN emulator.

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