Front Zone Control Unit for Propulsion and Chassis Domains in a Zonal E/E Architecture – System Engineering Approach to Architecture Design
Domenico Tavella, Ali Muhialdin, Enrico Garante, Alessandro Peciarolo · SAE technical papers on CD-ROM/SAE technical paper series · 2024
The modern automotive industry field is in the middle of a major transformation of the Electric/Electronics (E/E) system design, to meet the future mobility trends driven by Autonomy, Electrification and expanded Connectivity. For these reasons, the ongoing industry trend is to move to more centralized E/E architectures by combining and integrating sub-systems and controllers, from either a functional domain standpoint (horizontal integration, or “cross-domain controllers”) or a geographical zone standpoint (vertical integration, or “central brain with zones”), with the objective to optimize cost, weight, power distribution, provide enhanced security and versatility. This is because electrification, autonomy and connectivity features are significantly increasing the demand for data processing bandwidth, network throughput, intelligent power distribution and wiring harness capabilities for additional sensors/actuators. The evolution to a Centralized Architecture is made possible with advancements in computing technologies (more performance, memory). One step forward in this technological journey is the design of a Front Zone Control Unit (FZCU) that centralizes control supervisory functions from the Propulsion and Chassis domains, to implement a holistic cross-domain control concept that: Optimizes and consolidates control functional integration Optimizes vehicle performance, by reducing latency Provides seamless integration for EV Charging features, including “Plug&Charge” option, with a single-ECU HW/SW solution Maximizes re-use across different vehicle and propulsion platforms while considering: Technical HW/SW design constraints (including OBD and Safety) Calibration flexibility Global features portfolio A System Engineering approach to Architecture design, useful to managing multi-layered complexity, will be investigated in this paper. The main architecture views explored are: Operational View (“Why design the system?”) Functional View (“What functions are delivered?”) Constructional View (“How to concretely implement the functions?”) This paper will describe the organization of the system elements and the sequence of process steps needed for a top-down system/control architecture design, up to the technical recommendations for FZCU HW and SW design.