The growing complexity of electronic control unit (ECU) network development was a common thread discussed throughout technical sessions and workshops at the 4th biennial dSPACE North American User Conference.
The event, held May 2-4, 2006, in Plymouth, Michigan, was attended by more than 130 participants from over 40 different companies – representing a wide and diverse cross-section of the embedded electronic controls industry.
Participants included: ASAM, Bombardier, BMW, Caterpillar, DaimlerChrysler, Delphi, Detroit Diesel, Eagle RTEC, Eaton Corp., EnSoft Corp., FEV Engine Technology, Ford Motor Company, Freescale, General Dynamics, General Motors, GKN Automotive, Hitachi America, IAV, John Deere, Magna Powertrain, Lawrence Tech University, MSC, Moog, Motorola Automotive, Nissan, OSC Embedded Systems, PACCAR, Polyspace, Raytheon, Reactive Systems, Ricardo, Siemens VDO, Software Beret, The MathWorks, TRW, Vector Cantech, Visteon, WTI and Xerox.
The three-day conference kicked-off with a candid panel discussion moderated by Paul Hansen of The Hansen Report – the world’s foremost expert on automotive electronics. The discussion focused on ways to improve product quality and time-to-market through the use of ECU development tools. The panel agreed that the integration of ECU tools at a systems level - not just a single process – is critical to achieving significant productivity gains.
Individuals who served on the panel discussion were: James Kolhoff, Director of Software Engineering, GM Powertrain; Salim Momin, Director Virtual Garage Lab, Freescale Semiconductor, Inc.; Mark Thomas, Director Electronic Systems, Detroit Diesel; and Dr. Herbert Hanselmann, President and CEO, dSPACE GmbH.
A total of 20 presentations were given by dSPACE users, providing direct insight into how the embedded electronics industry is evolving within their own organizations. Users shed light on the internal ECU challenges that their companies have encountered, and the gains that their design teams made using dSPACE ECU development solutions.
New to the conference this year was a series of workshops on automatic code generation and model-based testing, hardware-in-the-loop design considerations, rapid control prototyping and calibration, and effective test automation techniques. The workshops provided opportunities for conference attendees to delve into highly-technical areas with dSPACE engineers.
Another new addition to the conference was an exhibit hall. Featured on display were two production vehicles utilizing ECU code generated from dSPACE’s TargetLink. Special thanks to our first-time exhibitors: ASAM, TheMathWorks, IAV, Polyspace, OSC Embedded Systems, Reactive Systems, FEV, Freescale and EnSoft.
Technical Abstracts and Presentations
Click on the links below to review abstracts and download presentations submitted at the 2006 dSPACE North American User Conference:dSPACE extends its sincere thanks and appreciation to all user conference participants. We hope that the event was insightful, educational and enjoyable to all who attended. If you would like to participate in an upcoming workshop or schedule a private session at your company, please contact your dSPACE representative.