Sanket Amberkar

A System-Safety Process For By-Wire Automotive Systems

Steer-by-wire and other “by-wire” systems (as defined in this article) offer many passive and active safety advantages. To help ensure these advantages are achieved, a comprehensive system-safety process should be followed. Here we review standard elements of system safety processes that are widely applied in several industries and describe the main elements of our proposed analysis process for by-wire systems. The process steps include: 1) creating a program plan to act as a blueprint for the process, 2) performing a variety of hazard analysis and risk assessment tasks as specified in the program plan, 3) designing and verifying a set of hazard controls that help mitigate risk, and 4) summarizing the findings. Vehicle manufacturers and suppliers need to work together to create and follow such a process. A distinguishing feature of the process is the explicit linking of hazard controls to the hazards they cover, permitting coveragebased risk assessment.

A Control System Methodology for Steer by Wire Systems

Steer by Wire systems provide many benefits in terms of functionality, and at the same time present significant challenges too. Chief among them is to make sure that an acceptable steering feel is achieved. Various aspects of this subjective attribute will be defined mathematically. A control system that is architected specifically to meet these challenges is presented. Furthermore, the design is made such that it would be robust to tire and loading variations. Supporting vehicle data and model results are shown as needed.

A Comprehensive Hazard Analysis Technique for Safety-Critical Automotive Systems

Hazard analysis plays an important role in the development of safety-critical systems. Hazard analysis techniques have been used in the development of automotive systems become more sophisticated in functionality, design, and applied technology, the need for a more comprehensive hazard analysis approach has arisen. In this paper, we describe a comprehensive hazard analysis approach for system safety programs. This comprehensive approach involves applying a number of hazard analysis techniques and then integrating their results. This comprehensive approach attempts to overcome the narrower scope of individual techniques while obtaining the benefits of all of them.