The transformation of the electronic vehicle architectures with the entry of high performance computers and thus increasingly software-based systems in the car (see article: The change in the vehicle E/E-Architectures) new challenges also arise for the diagnostic procedures. The next evolutionary step in the self-diagnosis of electronic control units (ECUECU – electronic control unit – is an embedded system in automotive electronics that controls one or more of the electrical systems or subsystems in a car or other motor vehicle. ECU in new cars control every feature a car has and are becoming more and more important in the development of automotives. More) is to be expexted. Under the name Service Oriented Vehicle Diagnostics (SOVD), the Association for Standardization of Automation and Measuring Systems (ASAM) is currently preparing a standardized API for diagnosting and communicating (also OTA-Updates) with software-based vehicles (see article: Innovation 2022 – CCI Study).

Objectives:

• an API (Application Programming Interface) for diagnostics and software update (OTAOTA – automotive over-the-air- is the new way cars use to automatically update their firmware and software. The manufacturer uploads the update data to a cloud, which is then forwarded to the car via a mobile connection, where it must be confirmed by the car owner, then installed, and finally feedback is sent back to the OEM. More).
• A consistent API that can be used for new systems and traditional sensor / actuator systems.
• Use scenarios: proximal (wired to the car or via short-range communication), in-vehicle (driving in the car) and remote (remotely with the car).
•  A self-describing signature of the API that allows diagnostics without an external description file (ODX).

The first release of ASAM-SOVD is expected in July 2022.

DIAGNOSTICS IN CHANGE
For each main function of the vehicle there is an Electronic Control Unit (ECUECU – electronic control unit – is an embedded system in automotive electronics that controls one or more of the electrical systems or subsystems in a car or other motor vehicle. ECU in new cars control every feature a car has and are becoming more and more important in the development of automotives. More), each of these ECUs (up to 150 in the vehicle) implements a monitoring of its functionality and the environment (self-diagnosis), the ECUs are connected to each other via bus systems (e.g. CANCAN- Controller Area Network – is a vehicle bus to allow devices to communicate with each other without a host computer. More) – and usually via a central gateway, which is also connected to the OBDOBD – The OBD adapter can read out errors and helps monitor certain vehicle functions. Likewise, you can use the interface for exhaust emission testing, for example. Values such as engine load, temperature or speed can also be displayed in real time. More socket.
However, new functions, such as autonomous driving, require significantly higher computing power than can be provided by today’s ECUs. Consequently, at least two high performance computer are installed in the vehicle for redundancy reasons.

Today’s diagnostic protocols work almost exclusively in request-response mode. Here, the tester usually queries individual data elements in the control units and then evaluates them.
As the name suggests, access should follow the structural pattern of the service-oriented architecture (SOA-Service Oriented Architecture). Here, a query enables the exact determination of the required information; the pre-processing and aggregation takes place autonomously in the high performance computer.
The SOVD supplements the current diagnostic scope (e.g. such as fault memory operations, ECUECU – electronic control unit – is an embedded system in automotive electronics that controls one or more of the electrical systems or subsystems in a car or other motor vehicle. ECU in new cars control every feature a car has and are becoming more and more important in the development of automotives. More programming or variant coding, …) by e.g. the execution of complex processes directly in the vehicle or access by several testers simultaneously.
Complex processes could be, for example, processes running in parallel, which, for example, process sensor data in an AIAI – artificial intelligence More machine through neural networks in order to make decisions or are permanently connected to the outside world, outsource the vehicle in part to the cloud or manage OTAOTA – automotive over-the-air- is the new way cars use to automatically update their firmware and software. The manufacturer uploads the update data to a cloud, which is then forwarded to the car via a mobile connection, where it must be confirmed by the car owner, then installed, and finally feedback is sent back to the OEM. More updates.
ASAM SOVD was developed with the intention to meet the described challenges while keeping existing procedures, technologies and methods in mind. For that reason, ASAM SOVD covers both traditional use cases (data access, fault information, control of internal software functions) as well as high performance computer related diagnostic use cases (vehicle software updates, logging, tracing, access to system information, dynamic discovery of content). Another aim was not to replace widely used technologies like the UDSUDS – Unified Diagnostic Services is a diagnostic communication protocol in the control unit environment within automotive electronics More protocol but to coexists with UDSUDS – Unified Diagnostic Services is a diagnostic communication protocol in the control unit environment within automotive electronics More while enhancing the functionality for diagnostic communication.
ASAM SOVD is based on HTTP/REST, JSON and OAuth. The focus of ASAM SOVD is the development of the API, as for the implementation.
In future may be it could also be adapted to AUTOSAR 🙂

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