IBM Software
Rational
Automotive
Increasing comfort,
safety and security of
automobiles
Developing in-vehicle electronic systems with IBM
Rational software
Products for smarter automobiles
Overview
Business challenge
Continental Automotive Group wanted
to establish an advanced platform for the
development of automotive electronic
systems such as body control units
and keyless automobile access control
systems.
Solution
Continental deployed an integrated
development environment leveraging
model-driven systems development
based on IBM Rational software solutions.
Continental Automotive Group, one of the world’s leading automotive
industry suppliers, develops a variety of in-vehicle electronic systems.
Its Body & Security business unit specialises in body control units,
LED light control, power closing, seat comfort systems, battery and
energy management, antenna modules, tyre monitoring, and access
control systems.
The Body & Security unit works closely with automotive
manufacturers worldwide to help them equip today’s automobiles with
new and innovative features, making them safer and more secure, with
enhanced comfort and reduced environmental impact; in other words
“making them smart”.
Remote keyless entry and ignition systems developed by the
Continental Body & Security business unit are good examples of how
the combination of mechanics, sensor technology, electronic hardware
and embedded software can create “smarter automobiles”. Within the
latest generation of remote keyless entry and ignition systems, also
known as passive start and entry systems (PASE), the key works without
actually having to be held. The automobile “knows” when the key
comes close and can automatically unlock the door if the driver touches
the handle. Bidirectional keys with inbuilt displays provide additional
information about the current vehicle status - whether it is locked or
unlocked, whether the lights are on or off, what the fuel level is, and
much more. Further, with this key the driver can remotely control
in-vehicle systems like heaters and air-conditioning or the sun-roof, by
making use of the latest wireless technology for data transmission.
Development of these Continental products is a challenging task;
schedules are tight because of time-to-market pressures, and the
complexity of systems and products constantly increases. On the
other hand, high quality is a mandatory requirement, safety is of high
importance, and continuous system availability must be ensured.
IBM Software
Rational
Automotive
Business Benefits
Increased development efficiency
through introducing better ways to
structure, analyse and communicate the
architecture and design of the complex invehicle systems that Continental delivers.
The need for an integrated development
environment
Until recently, the engineering teams of the Body & Security unit had
been using a growing number of different and mostly independent
development tools, which had contributed to a highly fragmented
engineering environment. The challenge was to avoid engineering
information being spread across many sources, making it difficult to
find and access. Geographically dispersed teams (and the resulting
synchronization issues) made the challenge even bigger. In addition
new emerging standards like AUTOSAR needed to be supported.
Starting in 2007, the Continental Body & Security business unit made a
decision that paved the way for the success of its product development.
Body & Security began to introduce IBM Rational Rhapsody as a
central engineering tool and as an integration framework to support a
model-driven systems and software development paradigm.
IBM Rational Rhapsody is a visual development environment for
systems engineers and software developers who create real-time or
embedded systems and software. Rational Rhapsody helps diverse teams
collaborate to understand and map out requirements, and reduces
complexity using industry standard visual modeling languages such as
SysML, UML and AUTOSAR. It provides different views of system
and software models that help to connect workflows and information
that were formerly isolated. IBM Rational Rhapsody covers the
entire electronic and electric (E/E) automotive domain, as it allows
the specification of E/E vehicle architectures as well as the design of
single electronic control units and the modeling and generation of the
embedded software in both its static and dynamic properties.
The Continental Body & Security business unit was already using
IBM Rational DOORS for capturing, managing and exchanging
Figure 1: The IBM solution has been used to design systems like passive start and
entry systems (PASE), which can sense when the vehicle’s owner is nearby and unlock
doors automatically.
Source: Continental Automotive Group
IBM Software
Rational
Automotive
Solution Components
Software
•
•
IBM® Rational® Rhapsody
IBM Rational DOORS
“IBM Rational DOORS
and Rational Rhapsody
allow us to better
manage the complex
architectures of our
products, and help us to
prevent our development
environment from
becoming fragmented.”
— Gervin Fadda, Body and Security business
unit, Continental Automotive Group
requirements with its clients. Rhapsody’s integration with DOORS
provides traceability between system/product requirements and enables
easy management of the architectural design and implementation.
Traceability and coverage reports provide insight into which
requirements have already been designed, implemented, tested, and
which have not.
Furthermore the open interfaces of Rhapsody have allowed Continental
to integrate other tools under the Rhapsody umbrella, including
version control and configuration management tools, and other thirdparty products.
“IBM Rational DOORS and Rational Rhapsody allow us to better
manage the complex architectures of our products, and help us to
prevent our development environment from becoming fragmented,”
comments Gervin Fadda, Body & Security business unit, Continental
Automotive Group.
Greater efficiency, assured quality
By implementing the Rational software, Continental’s Body & Security
unit has been able to prevent its development tool set from becoming
fragmented. The new environment, based on IBM Rational Rhapsody,
has increased the efficiency of the development teams by providing the
right information in a structured way, and leveraging the advantages of
a model-driven systems and software development approach.
This approach allows the Body & Security business unit to better
analyse, document and communicate the complex interactions and
relationships within the Continental systems and products, both
internally and with clients. The improved management of the system
and product architectures and their variants has enabled Continental to
increase reuse of assets within different product families.
Today, the model-driven system and software development paradigm is
also used for building prototypes and performing early simulation and
validation, making it easier for Continental to discuss solutions with
potential clients in order to win business worldwide.
Currently, IBM Rational Rhapsody is being used in 12 projects,
including several projects that leverage AUTOSAR technology. The
rollout of Rhapsody to other projects and teams is ongoing. Nearly all
projects and engineers at Continental’s Body & Security business unit
are already using IBM Rational DOORS for requirements engineering.
Encouraged by the good results achieved so far, Continental Body &
Security is now looking at adding new Rational software capabilities,
such as model-driven testing. “We will continue to rely on IBM tools,
as they help us to be more efficient,” says Gervin Fadda. “We especially
anticipate further benefits from introducing IBM Rational Rhapsody
TestConductor for automated testing.”
For more information
To learn more about IBM Rational software, contact your IBM sales
representative or visit: ibm.com/rational
© Copyright IBM Corporation 2011
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Produced in Germany
February 2011
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