Bold ambitions: Complex vehicle systems
E-mobility, connected driving and driver assistance systems bring digitalisation to the forefront of the automotive industry. And the trend is rising because the connectivity and complexity of vehicles is increasing. This creates an increased need for efficient testing of E/E vehicle components and systems to effectively eliminate sources of error long before production begins. The trend towards outsourcing hardware-in-the-loop (HiL) tests by OEMs suits Expleo’s way of working with creative engineering and great flexibility.
Reliable solutions: Test house with modular HiL test architecture
The Expleo test house takes over complete test services for OEMs to safeguard innovative and safety-relevant vehicle functions in all automotive areas. Expleo’s Stuttgart test house, which went into operation in 2015 and is one of the most modern test bench facilities in the automotive industry in Germany. On behalf of an German OEM, the Expleo test house independently tested four passenger car series in several model variants – and synchronised with all development cycles of the client. This included the conception and set-up of the test systems, the specification of the test cases, the operation of the hardware-in-the-loop (HiL) test systems as well as the execution of the test campaigns, including reporting.
For the development and series support of a new vehicle fleet, the experts have carried out and evaluated hundreds of thousands of component, subsystem and system integration tests for a German OEM during release. During the eight years of the project, the Expleo test house team developed all test cases for 12 hardware-in-the-loop (HiL) test benches on the 700 m² test area. The team’s focus was on ECUs in the areas of powertrain, vehicle dynamics, driver assistance and interior. In order to accurately simulate the entire vehicle system of a single passenger car series, replicating the vehicle models from the design stage to the different model types in later development phases was one of the major challenges. By means of dynamic HiL test scenarios, Expleo can therefore optimally simulate the entire vehicle and all environmental conditions.
Client benefit: Significant cost savings
The early outsourcing of the customer-specific test processes, including a focus on test coverage at an early stage, led to considerable cost and time savings for the client. All quality targets were met on time. Another advantage: while up to 30 employees in qualified teams carried out the entire HiL test process in the test house, the OEM was able to concentrate even more intensively on the development of innovative vehicle components by outsourcing.
QUALITY & TESTING
