Denso Corporation

Nippondenso Co., Ltd.

Akihito Iwai

Hiroshi Shibata

Hirotaka Sakai

Minoru Okada

Masahiro Goto

Tadaharu Nishimura

Katsumi Takaba

Hajime Nomura

Takahiro Shidai

Hirokazu Oguro

Yoshitaka Uematsu

Shigeru Kajioka

Kazuhiko Hagiwara

Tetsuya Tohdo

Hirotaka Yamamoto

Kenji Suganuma

Yohsuke Satoh

Keita Satou

In a method of scheduling tasks for controlling hardware devices, a specified task having the execution right in a current time slice is terminated by depriving the execution right therefrom, when a time during which the execution right continues reaches the activation time given to the specified task. An identification process is performed when each reference cycle has been completed or each task has been terminated. In the identification process, i) when there remain, time-guaranteed tasks which have not been terminated in the current time slice, a time-guaranteed task whose priority is maximum among the remaining tasks is identified, and ii) when there remain no un-terminated time-guaranteed tasks in the current slice, of remaining non-time-guaranteed tasks which are not terminated yet in the current time slice, a non-time-guaranteed task whose priority is maximum is identified. The execution right is assigned to the identified task through the identification process.

Method and apparatus for scheduling tasks to control hardware devices

An automatic code generation section reads a control model, and generates and releases a control program which is written in the C language. At the generation of the control program, a correspondence information formation section creates correspondence information indicative of the correspondence relationship between the control model and the control program. A simulation section reads the control model and simulates its operation. A program execution section reads the control program and executes it. A synchronizing section makes synchronization, that is, a relational linkage, between the operation results of the simulation section and the program execution section based on the correspondence information.

Method, apparatus and program for testing control program

In a car development system, a control specification development computer transmits Excel-format matching data of a car manufacturer to an XML database computer of an ECU supplier. The XML database computer converts the Excel-format data to XML-format data, and stores the data into an XML database. A software development computer of the ECU supplier requests text-format matching data, and the XML database computer extracts the matching data from the XML database, converts the data to text-format data and then transmits the data to the software development computer. A matching computer of the car manufacturer can likewise store ASAP2-format data into the XML database computer or extract the data from the XML database computer.

Product development system using common format data

A vehicle control apparatus has multiple electronic control units, A-ECU and B-ECU, connected via a communication line. Control programs of the apparatus is defined in an object-oriented type and loaded distributedly among multiple control units. The control programs of each control unit includes an application layer, an interface layer, a hardware-dependent virtual sensor part, a virtual actuator part, an input information converting part and output control part. The application layer is separated from hardware-dependent parts When an application layer of a B-ECU specifies a virtual actuator part and outputs driving information, an interface layer sends the driving information via the communication line to an interface layer of an A-ECU. The output control part of the A-ECU outputs that driving information at suitable timing to the virtual actuator part.

Vehicle control apparatus having multiple ECUs loaded with respective control programs

An automobile control system has a microcomputer that subjects each control data to be transmitted to a communication opponent to LSB conversion (accuracy conversion) to convert the control data to the data having the resolution acceptable for the communication opponent. The microcomputer stores a plurality of types of LSB conversion programs and a physical value conversion table. The microcomputer activates the physical value conversion program corresponding to the control data to be transmitted this time based on information listed in the table and subjects the control data to LSB conversion process according to the program of the physical value conversion. The microcomputer further has a Handle number specification table and a packet number specification table. The microcomputer generates the packet data to be transmitted based on the two tables. A transmission target packet number is used for regular transmission and the Handle number of the data to be event-transmitted is used for event transmission.

Automobile control system and method capable of revising control data transmission function

An ECU is provided with a microcomputer for performing arithmetic operation for controlling a control target by executing a program stored in a ROM and for performing the process to transmit the control data calculated by means of the arithmetic operation to a communication target. The program comprises independent program modules, that is, a program (application unit) for performing the arithmetic operation, a program (communication conversion unit) for extracting the control data to be transmitted from among the control data calculated by the application unit and for performing the process to convert the extracted control data to the communication data string corresponding to the communication protocol of the communication target, and a program (communication driver unit) for performing the process to transmit the data string according to the communication protocol.

Automobile control unit having different program modules

A vehicle control apparatus has a control unit for controlling an engine based on an engine control program and a control unit for controlling a transmission based on a transmission control program. The control units share a predetermined control data such as an engine rotation speed as a shared data. Forwarding a data from the control unit which provides the shared data to the control unit which receives the shared data is effected through shared memories provided separately from storage areas in which all the control data to be used by the control units in respective control operations are stored. Even if the system has different configurations, the addresses to be accessed for sharing the control data between the control units are the same so that the same control programs can be used.

Vehicle control apparatus and method sharing control data

An engine control program is divided into an application layer and a platform layer. The application layer defines a program which is independent of a hardware and is provided under an object-oriented design. The platform layer defines a program which is dependent on the hardware and is provided under the object-oriented design, and divided into three layers, that is, an upper layer, an intermediate layer and a lower layer. The upper layer, intermediate layer and the lower layer includes a sensor/actuator layer, a device driver layer and a virtual MPU layer, respectively.

Vehicle control apparatus having programs of object-oriented design

In a control apparatus and method for vehicles, control data such as engine air-fuel ratio correction values are learned and stored in a backup RAM to be used in engine control. Before the data are actually used in the engine control, not all the stored data are checked but only the data read out from the backup RAM to be used for control calculation are checked. Thus, all the memory data necessary are ensured to be checked in a short period of time, and improper control operation resulting from erroneous data can be obviated. Further, abnormality checking of all the stored data is executed at a specified timing separately. When the abnormality is found in any of the data, all the data in the backup RAM are initialized.

Memory check apparatus and method for checking data upon retrieval from memory

In a vehicle diagnosis system in which a diagnosis unit is connected to a control unit, the control unit determines whether or not there is a code read request from the diagnosis unit. When there is the request, it further determines whether or not code erase is in execution. When code erase is not in execution, an abnormality code stored in the standby RAM region of its CPU is searched for and the result is transmitted to the diagnosis unit. When code erase is in execution, on the other hand, the data after code erase (no abnormality code) is transmitted to the diagnosis unit. Thus, during code erase operation, the abnormality data before erase is prevented from being transmitted to the diagnosis unit. Further, in case of a RAM value read request is made from a main CPU to other CPU in the controller, it is checked whether a requested address value from the main CPU to the other CPU agrees with the address value transmitted from the other CPU to the main CPU. When the address values agree, the flag XA4ANS is set. After a prescribed interval from this flag setting, the RAM value corresponding to the requested address are responsively sent out to the diagnosis unit. Therefore, transmission of erroneous information to the diagnosis unit can be prevented without fail.

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Chiryu, Japan

Akihito Iwai