Rajeshwari Hegde

An Insight into the Hardware and Software Complexity of ECUs in Vehicles

Modern automotives integrate large amount of electronic devices to improve the driving safety and comfort. This growing number of Electronic Control Units (ECUs) with sophisticated software escalates the vehicle system design complexity. In this paper we explain the complexity of ECUs in terms of hardware and software and also we explore the possibility of Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) architecture for the integration of add-on software in ECUs. This reduces the complexity of the embedded system in vehicles and eases the ECU integration by reducing the total number of ECUs in the vehicles.

Teaching wireless communication using modern tools for OBE accomplishment

Migration of courses constituting higher engineering education to into an OBE (Outcome Based Education) environment is a challenging activity and varied perspectives. Such migration involves graceful modulation to the curriculum, delivery mechanisms and the assessment criteria. These modulations are driven by modulated Course Outcomes which, invariably, lands up, asynchronously, with, apparently, different motivations. A process frame work is believed to alleviate the difficulties in achieving successful migration and hence is formalized in this paper and presented. A case study of migration process which has been implemented by the authors for an UG (Under Graduate) programme course titled “Wireless Communication” is presented. The potential of simulation tool in accomplishing successful OBE is, incidentally, discovered and owing to their importance, otherwise, the importance of the development of skill set in the use of simulation tools with a clear understanding of the domain as an effective mechanism to achieve OBE is emphasized.

Comparison of two development boards for embedded system functionalities — Intel Galileo and Intel Atom board SYS9400

The use of microcontroller boards are extremely common in day to day lives, to such an extent that it is impossible to live without them. The choice of controllers is numerous. In the market today, with rich features for every board it is hard to choose the best one. This research paper aims to compare two microcontroller boards and to point out pros and cons of both boards. The two controllers chosen are Intel Atom board SeYS9400 powered by Intel Atom processor E6xx series and Intel Galileo Board powered by quark X1000 processor. The application chosen is automotive/robotic application. Comparing all the features of each board and juxtaposing each with the other a conclusion is drawn regarding the best one for automotive embedded system application.

An Image Processing Approach to Linguistic Translation

The art of translation is as old as written literature. Developments since the Industrial Revolution have influenced the practice of translation, nurturing schools, professional associations, and standard. In this paper, we propose a method of translation of typed Kannada text (taken as an image) into its equivalent English text. The National Instruments (NI) Vision Assistant (version 8.5) has been used for Optical character Recognition (OCR). We developed a new way of transliteration (which we call NIV transliteration) to simplify the training of characters. Also, we build a special type of dictionary for the purpose of translation.

Load Balancing across ECUs in Automotives

Modern automotive subsystems are no longer a heap of electro-mechanics but instead involve a number of Electronic Control Units (ECUs). Electronic Control Unit (ECU) has become the fundamental building block of any automotive subsystem and is interfaced with electro mechanics counterpart. To meet the system wide requirements, these ECUs are interconnected using the communication infrastructure. Although the communication infrastructure in terms of, predominantly, the CAN based vehicle network took its birth to enable ECUs to work in a coordinated manner in order to support system wide requirements, during the past decade, this infrastructure was also viewed as a potential means to incorporate extensibility in terms of addition of newer ECUs which are built for implementing additional requirements. With this paradigm, the number of ECUs started growing in a steep manner, uncontrolled and as a result, today, it is not hard to see a high segment automotive housing ECUs as large as 75-80. Hence, load balancing mechanisms are needed to ease ECU integration and for efficient utilization of CPU power in ECUs. In this paper, we explain the concept of load balancing on the basis of CPU utilization across ECUs.

4G protocol and architecture for BYOD over Cloud Computing

The Fourth Generation communication systems have speeds higher than those of 3G and have a more complicated architecture dedicated and defined for handling such voluminous data and to accommodate more users. The architecture also employs a specified protocol stack, software defined network along with their own security issues for wireless applications and remote access. In this paper we are trying to present the protocol stack for the 4G architecture and network, with particular applications directed towards BYOD and Cloud Computing (Virtual Networking).

Implementing outcome based education for microcontrollers

The programmable controllers and processors play important role in a wide range of embedded applications. Teaching such subjects in a meaningful way is always a challenging task as the students feel that writing code in assembly and Embedded C is difficult. The programmable controllers and processors are taught to Electrical cluster students which usually include Electronics and Communication Engineering, Telecommunication Engineering, Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering and Electrical and Electronics Engineering. The traditional method of teaching these subjects was faculty centric where the teacher teaches the theoretical concepts using blackboard or power point presentation. To enable the students to learn the practical applications, there is a need for a new approach of teaching the subject where in the students performance is evaluated based on various factors such as communication skills, analytical skills, professional ethics etc. In this direction, the paper focuses on the methods based on Outcome Based Education (OBE), adopted by the author to make the students understand the subject better.

STEREO ACOUSTIC PERCEPTION BASED ON REAL TIME VIDEO ACQUISITION FOR NAVIGATIONAL ASSISTANCE

A smart navigation system (an Electronic Travel Aid) based on an object detection mechanism has been designed to detect the presence of obstacles that immediately impede the path, by means of real time video processing. In this paper this is discussed, keeping in mind the navigation of the visually impaired. A video camera feeds images of the surroundings to a DaVinci Digital Media Processor, DM642, which works on the video, frame by frame. The processor carries out image processing techniques whose result contains information about the object in terms of image pixels. The algorithm aims to select the object which, among all others, poses maximum threat to the navigation. A database containing a total of three sounds is constructed. Hence, each image translates to a beep, where every beep informs the navigator of the obstacles directly in front of him. This paper implements an algorithm that is more efficient as compared to its predecessors.

A Paradigm Shift from Legacy to AUTOSAR Architecture in Future Automotives

The modern automotive Electrical/Electronics (E/E) systems have reached a high level of complexity today, leading to a corresponding increase in the complexity of the deployed software. The increasing complexity of automotive embedded software increases the need for software reusability and shorter design cycle. These issues are addressed by AUTOSAR (AUTomotive Open System ARchitecture), an emerging technology in automotive software engineering that contributes to reuse and increased flexibility while preserving interfaces and system-level integrity. The AUTOSAR approach has much to offer software engineers working on embedded systems or model-driven development. In this paper, we explain the paradigm shift from a legacy architecture to the AUTOSAR architecture of ECU design, which eases the integration of ECUs supplied by different Tier1 suppliers.

Load Balancing in Multi ECU Configuration

Electronic Control Units (ECUs) are widely used to improve the comfort and reliability of vehicles. It has become the fundamental building block of any automotive subsystem and is interfaced with electro mechanics counterpart. To meet the system wide requirements, these ECUs are interconnected using the communication infrastructure. Although the communication infrastructure in terms of, predominantly, the CAN based vehicle network took its birth to enable ECUs to work in a coordinated manner in order to support system wide requirements, during the past decade, this infrastructure was also viewed as a potential means to incorporate extensibility in terms of addition of newer ECUs which are built for implementing additional requirements. With this paradigm, the number of ECUs started growing in a steep manner, uncontrolled and as a result, today, it is not hard to see a high segment automotive housing ECUs as large as 75-80. Hence, load balancing mechanisms are needed to ease ECU integration and for efficient utilization of CPU power in ECUs. In this paper, we explain the mathematical approach for load balancing across ECUs on the basis of CPU utilization.