Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering IESE
Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering IESE
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© freepik.com/Who is Denny; freepik.com/kjpargeter; Fraunhofer IESE

© freepik.com/Who is Denny; freepik.com/kjpargeter; Fraunhofer IESE

Simulation Framework “FERAL” for Virtual Engineering

Virtual Architecture Development and Assessment

How do you develop and test your software systems? Not only systems that make safety-relevant decisions in an automated manner need to be validated. We are living in a world of embedded systems and complex architectural systems that control physical processes. One example is the braking process of a car, which is nowadays supported by a large number of assistance systems, such as ABS or ESP.

With cyber-physical systems, i.e., communicating embedded systems that can self-adapt to their environment and learn new tasks, the challenges for systems engineers are growing. Hence, systems need to change. This leads to entirely new challenges regarding the architecture of these systems.

In the absence of empirical data, the only means to evaluate new architectural concepts is to build real prototypes. The selection of the best concepts requires the realization of very many prototypes. This causes very high costs and long development cycles.

FERAL – Accelerating vehicle innovation through advanced simulation

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The video presents the simulation framework FERAL, which was developed by the experts at Fraunhofer IESE. FERAL is a versatile toolbox that makes it possible to create highly complex digital twins of various components, mainly in the automotive sector - onroad and offroad. FERAL not only offers the opportunity to create digital twins for different elements, but also the ability to simulate. “What-if” scenarios can be simulated to find out the effects of certain decisions and whether the behavior of the system is as expected. 

 

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The Benefits of Virtual Development – FERAL

  • Cost as well as time savings with regard to strategic development and changes of system concepts
  • Early detection of wrong developments
  • Validates decisions with measurable results
  • Integrates the requirements of stakeholders (marketing, developers, users, project managers, etc.) and basic technologies (control devices, networks, etc.)
  • Prevents misunderstandings between stakeholders, architects, and developers
  • Focuses on solution concepts instead of on problems
  • Tests system concepts in the context of defects and attacks (e.g., hacker attacks)

FERAL references from industry and research

So says Shenoy Ganesh, Tech Expert, BOSCH Global Software Technologies:

 

“We have reduced the duration of release tests by 80% (2 weeks with HiL compared to 2 days with FERAL). We have also accelerated the execution time for component tests by 30% and achieved greater scalability through parallel test executions.”

Robert Bosch GmbH

Together with Robert Bosch GmbH, Fraunhofer IESE realized the virtual integration and validation of control units. The Fraunhofer FERAL technology was used for this purpose.

to the Project

So asys Martin Meiler, Business Development Manager Safe Systems, CADFEM Germany GmbH:

„Fraunhofer IESE's simulation framework FERAL enables efficient validation of ADAS functions modelled with Ansys SCADE by seamless integration with, a.o., driving simulators like CARLA. Furthermore, FERAL allows to easily analyze the effects of random errors and potential attacks on the implemented ADAS functions through systematic fault-injection performed on the CAN bus."

Mercedes-Benz AG

Together with the Technical University of Kaiserslautern, Fraunhofer IESE has developed a measurement platform (DRAMMeasure) for DRAM memory for Mercedes-Benz AG in order to determine performance parameters for future control units.

to the Project

Feral - Areas of application

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Task

 

  • Architecture analysis
  • Response time analysis

 

Software lockstep on consumer processors (ARM)

 

  • Simulates tasks, deployment, runtimes, scheduling
  • Processing times and jitter per task
  • Injected defects during calculation and on bus
  • Evaluates network load, response times, behavior

Remote control of a hydraulic lift (anonymized application)

 

  • Remote control of the safety function via smartphone or Wi-Fi
  • Virtual evaluation of the system- and safety concept prior to implementation
  • Gradual integration of models (specification) and C/C++ code (realization)

Prototype for system architecture

 

  • High-level models similar to UML/SysML
  • Executable and unambiguous
  • Synchronizes different domains

Coordination among developers

 

  • High-level & implementation interfaces
  • Data flows in the system
  • Main features

Refinement and integration

 

  • Change impact analysis
  • Change management support

Business case and requirements

 

  • Charging time of vehicles
  • Activation of participants
  • Delivery times for packages

 

Application concepts

 

  • Application architecture and application functions
  • Main components and interfaces
  • Inclusion of new services and new infrastructure

 

Virtual test bed for applications

  • Evaluation and prediction of performance
  • Based on variables and available services
  • Early evaluation of new concepts

FERAL – Application Areas

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FERAL - Virtuelle Integration mit virtuellem HiL-Testen, Fraunhofer IESE
© Icons8
FERAL - Virtuelle Integration mit virtuellem HiL-Testen
  • The integration of software components and systems might lead to unexpected and undesired emergent behavior.
  • FERAL enables virtual integration in order to evaluate emergent behavior. System-wide assurances guarantee the absence of non-conformant behavior. Integration is supported on different levels of abstraction, which include specifications and realizations.

Image sources: https://icons8.com/

Vorhersage des Timings – verändertes Timing, wenn Funktionen konsolidiert werden, Fraunhofer IESE
© Icons8
Vorhersage des Timings – verändertes Timing, wenn Funktionen konsolidiert werden
  • Shifting functions between control units changes the timing. This impacts the timing of other functions, the times at which data are supplied and used, as well as the network communication.
  • FERAL evaluates whether a distributed algorithm is still stable. In a single environment or in all system configurations.

FERAL - Schnittstellenkonformität – korrekte und konforme Interaktion, Fraunhofer IESE
© Icons8
FERAL - Schnittstellenkonformität – korrekte und konforme Interaktion
  • Complex software systems consist of components that are developed independent of each other.
  • Architects and developers assume the existence of interfaces and basic behavior.
  • Informal descriptions lead to misunderstandings. Executable prototypes enable more precise descriptions, which support early and continuous testing of specifications and realizations.
  • FERAL enables continuous conformance testing with component specifications, the simulation of Use Cases and interactions, as well as the mixing of high-level specifications with implementations.

FERAL - Prototyping von Softwaresystemen & Ökosystemen, Fraunhofer IESE
© Icons8
FERAL - Prototyping von Softwaresystemen & Ökosystemen
  • Software ecosystems must fulfill the requirements of numerous stakeholders.
  • The virtual prototypes of FERAL describe the realization of stakeholder requirements. They are integrated with real entities, create virtual development and deployment environments, and enable early testing of concepts and what-if analyses.

Technology for the Virtual Engineering of FERAL

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Functional Integration through Simulator Coupling

Holistic simulation of the functional system behavior across tool boundaries

 

  • Evaluation across abstraction levels – joint evaluation of high- and low-level system concepts
  • Automated script-based testing and monitoring of the achieved test coverage
  • System-wide assurances; automatic comparison between actual and expected behavior

Virtual Hardware-in-the-Loop Testing (vHiL)

Simulation of the deployment of functions on (multicore) ECUs (Electronic Control Units)

 

  • Simulates the behavior after deployment (tasks, priorities, scheduling & interrupts, parallelization mechanisms)
  • OSEK-/AUTOSAR-conformant scheduling strategies
  • Virtual sensors and actuators communicate with the simulated environment
  • Existing behavior models do not need to be changed to check the capacity of processor cores and the effects of communication delays by means of vHiL simulations

Inclusion & Evaluation of Target Platform Code

Execution of Functional Networks

A functional network defines

 

  • Functions
  • Ports and information flows
  • FERAL additionally defines the execution semantics

 

 

 

Challenge: The functional network is defined only in part

 

  • Some functions are implemented
  • Some functions have specified behavior
  • Some functions only have names & ports

Incremental Refinement of Functional Networks

Iterative refinement of functions possible

 

  • Interaction occurs in a message-based manner via ports and links
  • Function blocks can get behavior assigned to them

 

Supported behavior models

 

  • UML/SysML: sequences, state machines, activities
  • Java & Groovy, as well as C/C++ code
  • Simulink models

 

The execution of incompletely specified functional networks is supported

 

  • Not specified functions realize situation-dependent default behavior
  • For example, “Filter X should filter this signal” is possible even if the implementation of the function Filter X does not exist yet

Realization

A mixture of differently defined behavior components is possible

 

  • As well as the integration of other existing tools

 

Eclipse-based expert tool

 

  • Uses Groovy-based domain-specific language for configuration
  • Xtext and graphical frontends are planned

Selection of FERAL Simulation Components

Podcast: Virtual Test Benches for Off-Road Applications

19.02.2025:/ Dr. Pablo Oliveira Antonino (Fraunhofer IESE) and Alex Foessel (Balanced Engineering LLC) talk about their project and the innovation in the Agricultural sector.

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With the click on the play button an external video from www.youtube.com is loaded and started. Your data is possible transferred and stored to third party. Do not start the video if you disagree. Find more about the youtube privacy statement under the following link: https://policies.google.com/privacy

IESE-Podcast Folge 43 with Dr. Pablo Oliveira Antonino (Fraunhofer IESE) and Alex Foessel (Balanced Engineering LLC)

Testing highly automated and autonomous agricultural vehicles is challenging due to the high costs and labor-intensive nature of the process. It requires verifying a wide range of system configurations and scenarios to evaluate and release new technical systems and features for the agricultural sector. Real test drives on this scale are often impractical, making virtual test benches essential. Our solution "FERAL" leverages digital twins and simulations to address these challenges, enabling continuous engineering principles. This approach allows for cost-efficient validation and optimization of advanced smart farming equipment, ensuring seamless integration into modern agricultural operations.

We from Fraunhofer IESE will be at embedded world 2025 and present how you can use Virtual Test Benches and Digital Twins for Off-Road Applications to find errors early in the development process, thus saving expensive HIL tests and shortening the time to market.

 

Impressions from embedded world 2024

Dr. Pablo Oliveira Antonino

Department Head Virtual Engineering

We support you!

With our experience, we would be happy to support you in addressing the ever-increasing complexity of systems more flexibly, faster, and more cost-effectively through virtual engineering and virtual test environments. We will happily collaborate with your engineers to validate decisions, optimize systems, or create something completely new. For customers who want to use virtual prototypes themselves, we provide support in the development of adapted simulation solutions as well as in the implementation of their own concepts for coupling simulators. Do you have any questions about virtual simulation with FERAL? Please contact us!

 

Contact us!

 

In a personal conversation, we will find out together how we can best support you.

Contact us now