Heterogeneous Multi-core ECU for Future eCars

Introduction and Goals

Modern high-end cars contain ~100 distributed Electronic Control Units (ECUs) and ~4 Km long cables to carry out complex functionalities with distinct requirements. Typically, these functionalities can be classified in any-time (infotainment), soft real-time (displays) and hard real-time (break). The functionalities embedded in the cars are expected to grow resulting in more number of integrated ECUs and cables. Such distributed Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure results in ever increasing weight, cost and complexity of modern automobiles. The project aims to build a centralized ICT infrastructure for future Electric Cars (eCars) to drastically reduce number of ECUs and cables.

The research interest within this context centers around novel concepts for hardware, software, and hardware/software co-design for future inner/inter-car ICT infrastructure, including but not limited to MPSOC-based ECUs, distributed control and battery management systems, formal verification, and model-based programming paradigm. Even though the scientific activities include a high degree of fundamental research, it involves regular contacts with renowned German automobile manufacturers as well as their partners in China.

Involved Projects

BMBF 16N11936: Innovative Electronic Control Units (ECU) für Elektrofahrzeuge
BMBF 16N11933: Car2X Integration in Automotive Electric/Electronic-Architectures

Objective

The project intends to build heterogeneous high performance multi-core ECU which is able to execute several mixed critical applications which are distributed in state-of-the-art architectures. In the process, performance enhancing Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) components, for example multi-cores, GPUs, FPGAs, SDRAMs etc will be investigated. Safe integration of mixed critical applications adhering to ISO 26262 is intended.

Expected Outcome

High performance embedded computing ECU, maximizing FLOPS/Watt
Unified programming model to program heterogeneity
Mixed-criticality system design flow for ISO certification

Cutting Edge Technology

Components from high performance architectures, for example multi-cores, GPGPUs, DDR2/3 memories, FPGAs will be integrated to deliver high computation power together with reliable operation.

Experiment Platform

eCar

Key Data:

- 4 independent eCorner modules
- Input / Output
  - Side stick
  - 10" touch screen
- 4 truck batteries
- overall dimensions: 2.2m x 1.3m x 1.7m (LxWxH)
- 600 kg total weight
- 200 kg payload
- 54 km/h max. speed
- 1 passenger

LEGO CAR

Parts

Assemble Car_0

Running Car_0

New design Car_1

Partner

http://www.in.tum.de, Technical University Munich, Germany
http://www.kit.edu, Karlsruhe Institut für Technology, Germany
http://www.tsinghua.edu.cn/, Tsinghua University, China

Publications

[1]	Biao Hu, Kai Huang, Gang Chen, Long Cheng, and Alois Knoll. Online workload monitoring with the feedback of actual execution time for real-time systems. In in Design, Automation and Test in Europe (DATE), March 2017. [ .bib ]
[2]	Biao Hu, Kai Huang, Pengcheng Huang, Lothar Thiele, and Alois Knoll. On-the-fly fast overrun budgeting for mixed-criticality systems. In International Conference on Embedded Software (EMSOFT), October 2016. [ .bib \| .pdf ]
[3]	Kai Huang, Biao Hu, Jan Botsch, Nikhil Madduri, and Alois Knoll. A scalable lane detection algorithm on cotss with opencl. In In Design, Automation and Test in Europe, March 2016. [ .bib ]
[4]	Long Cheng, Kai Huang, Gang Chen, Biao Hu, and Alois Knoll. Minimizing peak temperature for pipelined hard real-time systems. In In Design, Automation and Test in Europe, 2016. [ .bib ]
[5]	Biao Hu, Kai Huang, Gang Chen, Long Cheng, and Alois Knoll. Adaptive runtime shaping for mixed-criticality systems. In International Conference on Embedded Software (EMSOFT), October 2015. [ .bib \| .pdf ]
[6]	Gang Chen, Kai Huang, Christian Buckl, and Alois Knoll. Applying pay-burst-only-once principle for periodic power management in hard real-time pipelined multiprocessor systems. ACM Transactions on Design Automation of Electronic Systems (TODAES), February 2015. [ .bib \| .pdf ]
[7]	Biao Hu, Kai Huang, Gang Chen, and Alois Knoll. Evaluation of runtime monitoring methods for real-time event streams. In Design Automation Conference (ASP-DAC), 2015 20th Asia and South Pacific, Jan 2015. [ .bib \| .pdf ]
[8]	Gang Chen, Biao Hu, Kai Huang, Alois Knoll, Di Liu, and Todor Stefanov. Automatic cache partitioning and time-triggered scheduling for real-time mpsocs. In 2014 International Conference on Reconfigurable Computing and FPGAs (ReConFig 2014), December 2014. [ .bib \| .pdf ]
[9]	Hardik Shah, Kai Huang, and Alois Knoll. Timing anomalies in multi-core architectures due to the interference on the shared resources. In Design Automation Conference (ASP-DAC), 2014 19th Asia and South Pacific, pages 708-713, Jan 2014. [ .bib \| .pdf ]
[10]	Gang Chen, Kai Huang, and Alois Knoll. Energy optimization for real-time multiprocessor system-on-chip with optimal dvfs and dpm combination. ACM Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems (TECS), 2014. [ .bib \| .pdf ]
[11]	Hardik Shah, Andrew Coombes, Andreas Raabe, Kai Huang, and Alois Knoll. Measurement based wcet analysis for multi-core architectures. In RTNS 2014, Versailles, France, 2014. [ .bib \| .pdf ]
[12]	Hardik Shah, Kai Huang, and Alois Knoll. The priority division arbiter for low wcet and high resource utilization in multi-core architectures. In RTNS 2014, Versailles, France, 2014. [ .bib \| .pdf ]
[13]	Jia Huang, Andreas Raabe, Kai Huang, Christian Buckl, and Alois Knoll. A framework for reliability-aware design exploration for mpsoc based systems. Design Automation for Embedded Systems (DAEM), December 2013. [ .bib \| .pdf ]
[14]	Sebastian Klose, Philipp Heise, and Alois Knoll. Efficient Compositional Approaches for Real-Time Robust Direct Visual Odometry from RGB-D Data. In IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), November 2013. [ .bib \| .pdf ]
[15]	Gang Chen, Kai Huang, and Alois Knoll. Extended abstract: Energy optimization for real-time multiprocessor system-on-chip with optimal dvfs and dpm combination. In 11th IEEE Symposium on Embedded Systems for Real-time Multimedia (ESTIMedia), October 2013. [ .bib \| .pdf ]
[16]	Hauke Staehle, Kai Huang, and Alois Knoll. Drive-by-wireless with the ecar demonstrator. Technical Report TUM-I1342, October 2013. [ .bib \| .pdf ]
[17]	Kai Huang, Hardik Shah, Karan Savant, Dexin Chen, Gang Chen, Sebastian Klose, and Alois Knoll. A lego/fpga-based platform for the education of cyber-physical/embedded systems. In Workshop on Embedded and Cyber-Physical Systems Education (WESE), October 2013. [ .bib \| .pdf ]
[18]	Gang Chen, Kai Huang, Jia Huang, Buckl Christian, and Alois Knoll. Effective online power management with adaptive interplay of dvs and dpm for embedded real-time system. In 16th Euromicro International Conference on Digital System Design (DSD), September 2013. [ .bib \| .pdf ]
[19]	Gang Chen, Kai Huang, Jia Huang, and Alois Knoll. Cache partitioning and scheduling for energy optimization of real-time mpsocs. In 24th IEEE International Conference on Application-specific Systems, Architectures and Processors (ASAP), June 2013. [ .bib \| .pdf ]
[20]	Gang Chen, Kai Huang, Christian Buckl, and Alois Knoll. Energy optimization with worst-case deadline guarantee for pipelined multiprocessor systems. In Design, Automation and Test in Europe (DATE), March 2013. [ .bib \| .pdf ]
[21]	Hardik Shah, Andreas Raabe, and Alois Knoll. Challenges of WCET analysis in COTS multi-core due to different levels of abstraction. In hiRES 2013, Berlin, 2013. [ .bib \| .pdf ]
[22]	Hardik Shah, Alois Knoll, and Benny Akesson. Bounding resource interference: Detailed analysis vs. latency-rate analysis. In Design, Automation and Test in Europe (DATE), Grenoble, 2013. [ .bib \| .pdf ]
[23]	Hardik Shah, Kai Huang, and Alois Knoll. Weighted execution time analysis of applications on cots multi-core architectures. Technical Report TUM-I1339, 2013. [ .bib \| .pdf ]
[24]	D. Lütkemeyer, I. Poggendorf, T. Scherer, J. Zhang, A. Knoll, and J. Lehmann. Robot automation of sampling and sample management in pilot scale. In 11th International Biotechnology Symposium, Berlin, Germany, September 2000. [ .bib ]

People

Gang Chen
Kai Huang
Biao Hu
Sebastian Klose
Hardik Shah