Latest improvements in going from SysML to AUTOSAR, an ongoing story of embedded software development
Siemens Digital Industries Software is building out a modern embedded software development flow, from requirements and system models through to running software. In this blog I will focus on the flow as it applies to Automotive, such is my background, but other industries are supported.
In fact I’ve written about this history before, back in 2020, if you want the back story about how we got to the VSTAR products and Siemens CapitalTM Networks Designer software from VSA Com etc, however we’re overdue an update, so here goes…
Some history, I mentioned VSTAR
Over time our solutions evolve, expand in capability to support updated flows at our existing customers, and new customers, for example the trend for software factories in companies that may previously have focused more on the physical vehicle, rather than the software now needed in Software Defined Vehicles, and other software defined products. As such what were once VSTAR products are now Capital Embedded products reflecting the ever increasing integration into the Capital flow for embedded software development, and updated support for CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment) process support, watch this space for more on that soon!
Similarly what was once VSA Com, evolved into Capital Networks, and now Capital Networks Designer, supporting Avionics and Automotive uses and the wide range of network technologies used in the respective industries, enabling full system network design and validation.
AUTOSAR
The AUTOSAR standard has developed a lot in the 20 or so years it has been around, and is now used by almost all car OEM’s and an increasing number of heavy equipment and off highway OEM’s also. Over time this has resulted in the original standard becoming the AUTOSAR Classic Platform, and a newer Adaptive Platform being developed to support application type functions, with a Foundation standard to cover all the common areas ensuring compatibility.
AUTOSAR has also been updating its approach to support Software Factories, and specifically heterogenous software stacks, with increased collaboration between the AUTOSAR standards organization and other standards, such as Eclipse SDV, COVESA, SOAFEE, along with more traditional collaborations such as with the IEEE-SA and ASAM over Automotive Ethernet and exchange formats, as well as the usual feature enhancements supporting the OEM requested functionality.
Automotive systems and software engineering
Traditionally, adding features to vehicles meant adding an ECU to run that feature, this has long been expensive and inefficient, but also hard to avoid, so as efforts to consolidate existing functions are ongoing, new features still often result in extra ECU’s. Several factors drive this, the OEM’s desire to take advantage of the economies, and competitive market place of Tier 1 suppliers in a commercial sense is not easily aligned with the technical aspects of which functions can most easily be re-used or re-allocated to support the same features in fewer overall ECU’s.
Working with multi-domain systems models, linked to requirements, feeding directly into the software development enables earlier consideration of this consolidation, and validation of the vehicle features. Therefore the ability to connect SysML models directly to the software development via Capital Software Developer with IBM Rhapsody (or Arcadia models from Siemens System Modeling Workbench etc) enables early understanding of relationships and interactions, and decoupling of the software development from the hardware development, as needed for software over life with software defined vehicles.
SysML v2 is the latest topic here adding a metamodel and promises to simplify the interoperability of MBSE tools (Model-Based Systems Engineering).
Digital twins
Siemens Xcelerator portfolio is characterized by a comprehensive digital twin, personalized adaptable and modern tools as part of a flexible open ecosystem enabling integration into software factory type development processes, adding value through time saved in design processes using automation, and through right first time designs due to early model based validations. Models used in each stage of the design process enable automation of laborious and repetitive tasks, translations between domains for digital continuity, and combined with the ability to include corporate IP, design rules, standards etc, allow virtual validations of designs and configurations at each stage. Physical testing can be used to confirm expected performance, rather than debug errors from earlier stages of development.
Summary
Siemens continues to develop and invest in software engineering as part of Siemens Xcelerator, ensuring that the Capital portfolio supports the development processes being adopted in software factories in the Automotive and many other industries. SysML moving to v2 with a standardized metamodel behind the diagrams, and the AUTOSAR standard’s collaborations with new and existing SDV related standards all feed in to the ongoing developments in this space. Find out more about the capabilities of Capital today, and keep watching for more updates soon supporting robust, speedy embedded software development.
