ETAS, ESCRYPT bets big with new products, software systems in India
ETAS, a German company which designs solutions and tools for the development of embedded systems for the automotive industry and other sectors, has launched new products like Simplified Emission Measurement System (SEMS), drive recorder, and SCODE and CONGRA software systems in India. The company provides innovative solutions, engineering services, consulting, training, and support for the development of embedded systems for the automotive industry and other sectors of the embedded industry.
ESCRYPT, a wholly-owned subsidiary of ETAS, offers solutions for cyber security which is a critical facet in the connected world. It aids many OEMs to design an automotive embedded security architecture for advanced applications and gives assistance to implement security solutions. This includes offering a range of products to the OEMs like cryptographic libraries, Transport Layer Security Protocols implementation, automotive grade firewalls to hardware security modules where a hardware based security can be implemented in cooperation with silicon vendors. ESCRYPT has also developed advanced solutions like Intrusion Detection and Prevention System to monitoring and securing on-filed vehicles.
ETAS’ real-time application team provides safety consulting for OTA solutions along with security solutions from ESCRYPT to enable ‘Safe-and-Secure OTA’. ETAS portfolio covers all the needs of the safe and secure connected vehicles SEMS is a solution for measuring the emission levels in a vehicle. It is a solution that will help OEMs during their development and validation activities to meet the Real Driving Emission (RDE) requirements. SEMS, that can be connected to a cloudbased server, records the emission level with high accuracy and sends the data back to the server.
The 2 new ETAS software tools SCODE-ANALYZER (System CODEsign) and SCODE-CONGRA (CONstraint GRAphics) help get a jump start in mastering the complexity of embedded software. Both these tools are recent additions to the Eclipse-based SCODE product family, which enables clear visualization of complex systems. The tools support in early phases of software development by helping to determine the control system that is described as complete, unambiguous, deterministic and predictable.
SCODE software reduces the complexity by combining all the critical parts in a single problem space and so combining all the conditions that influence the system in a single mode. It provides different mode transitions in variety of combinations. SCODE helps check the completeness of the system which covers all the possible combinations without deadlock. It is consistent and so there is no possibility of overlapping. Data flow is still required as SCODE focuses only on switching behaviour, and so the company has come up with CONGRA which derives different
flows of the system. One set of equations can be solved multiple times in embedded system terms for each SCODE mode (close loop mode, open loop mode etc.) which is derived. Ultimately, both the software saves 25% of the time in each project. These products were showcased at the Automotive Testing Expo in Chennai during January 10-12, 2018
Established in 1994, ETAS GmbH is a 100 % subsidiary of the Bosch Group, with international subsidiaries and sales offices in Europe, North and South America, and Asia.
“We will help our customers for RDE compliance; this year, we launched SEMS, a Simplified Emission Measurement System which will help our customers in the vehicle development & validation, it is also going to be economical for the customers. Our new drive recorder ES820 will be much more powerful and have more capacity; this will help our customers as the number of ECUs and their complexities are increasing. Last year, we also launched new architecture for our hardware in loop system LABCAR. SCODE & CONGRA, new software solution from ETAS can be used to describe and verify complex interrelationships of embedded software systems in a clear manner, make the software predictable and deterministic. This will also help in ensuring that the software is bug-free” Sameera Damle, Head of Technical Sales & Engineering, ETAS India, told Auto Components India.
As systems provider, ETAS supplies a multifaceted portfolio that covers the range from integrated tools and solutions to engineering services, consulting, training, and support. Security solutions in the areas of embedded systems are offered by ESCRYPT. The brand mainly provides measurement, calibration, and diagnostic (MCD), hardware in loop system, software development tools to automakers and suppliers worldwide. Its hardware and software products form a built-in part of the development process, assisting engineers in everything from developing application software for electronic control units (ECUs) to the integration of automotive electronic systems in the vehicle.
“We support people who would do the software development for automotive control units and we take care of the complete life cycle of the software that goes into the vehicle. Starting from software conceptualization, our solutions are used for software design and development, validation of the software in prototype hardware - rapid prototyping and validating the actual control units in the simulated environment which is called as hardware in the loop simulation using our HiL called LABCAR. We also provide solutions to the software in the loop & model in loop testing. Our flagship product INCA is used for application of the ECUs into the vehicle by almost all OEMs and ECU suppliers around the world” he said.
New areas
ETAS is venturing into 2 new areas. One is to provide embedded security solutions in the emerging automotive electronics industry. Security solutions in the areas of embedded systems are offered by the ETAS subsidiary ESCRYPT. Another area is virtualisation which is validating things without having the real components in hand. ETAS’ virtual ECU, and ISOLAR-EVE, handle virtualisation of individual ECUs or whole ECU network on the PC.
“We are living in a connected world today. For example, a car can be connected to the internet and hence the external world through the mobile or the infotainment unit. This significantly increases the risk of unauthorized entry or intrusion into the vehicle. So, this is one of the big threats that the automotive electronics industry is facing in the connected world. We make solutions to make the connected vehicle secure. We have a holistic approach to remove all the possible threats at all levels; hence we take care of security aspect end to end.. Through our subsidiary ESCRYPT we offer complete embedded security solutions,” Damle told.
“Simulation is a very powerful technique for early verification and validation. Before the ECU is ready we can validate the features by using a virtual ECU using simulation techniques. We can also simulate vehicle components like engine, vehicle dynamics and real-world conditions using models. By doing verification & validation of your ECU software using this technique helps to identify errors much before the actual product is developed. This is called Virtualisation,” he added.
Automotive electronics is interacting more and more with the outside world. For this reason, safety and security must be systematically interconnected: security for protection from unauthorised access and safety to ensure that the
systems function as desired. This calls for solutions that cover the full process, from the start of product development to end of life. And these solutions must be compatible with increasingly complex software systems. To meet the demanding needs of the next generation of connected and autonomous high-performance automotive systems, ETAS is in collaboration with the US company Lynx Software Technologies. They will jointly provide a reliable and secure ECU platform technology.
Assisted and autonomous driving is currently one of the biggest trends to impact the automotive industry. The ADAS solution space for fully automated vehicles is undergoing a radical change, from conventional development methods based on mathematical algorithms to neutral networks for object recognition and classification, data fusion, localisation, situational analysis, and decision-making. Both ADAS approaches require measuring instruments that can record, visualize, save, and evaluate the large raw and object data streams. ETAS provides measurement, simulation, and test environments as well as data management and analysis tools. Engineers use INCA and ETAS ECU and bus interfaces along with measurement modules to calibrate, validate, and diagnose automotive electronic systems and to acquire reliable data from those systems and the vehicle environment. INCA offers connectivity to all relevant bus systems. It provides for calibrating and diagnosing multiple ECUs while monitoring bus communication and acquiring measurement signals from the vehicle environment. INCA supports all standard ECU description formats as well as measurement, calibration, and diagnostic protocols.
“The demands on our automobiles’ drivability, convenience, safety, and environmental friendliness are steadily increasing. As a result, the number and complexity of electronic functions in modern automobiles is continuously rising. ETAS systems consist of powerful hardware and software components that are modular and scalable and can be used individually or in combination. Our products can be easily incorporated into existing development environments and can be seamlessly integrated into the existing toolchain. Our solutions are developed with open architecture so that it can be easily integrated into third party tools. We actively take part in standardization committees and our solutions comply to all the automotive standards.” Damle said.