As a system supplier for all major OEMs, JTEKT develops, among other things, steering systems, one of the vehicle components that are particularly critical to safety. The current trends in the automotive industry in the ADAS/AD sector are already having a major impact here because they also intervene in the steering system. A large number of constraints and standards must therefore be taken into account when developing software for these systems (Figure 1). Under normal circumstances, this growing complexity would also lead to an increase in the time required for development work. However, JTEKT’s customers expect exactly the opposite, namely more frequent delivery of new software versions and a reduction in the time to market.
“In order to gain and maintain the trust of customers, it is important to streamline the development processes and meet a whole range of standards at the same time. Customers simply expect that these days,” says Dr. Luc Malrait, Senior Software Engineer at JTEKT Europe.
 

JTEKTS Answer: AUTOSAR-Based Mode of Operation

The first step – the foundation, so to speak – of the JTEKT working method (Figure 2) is the model-based software architecture design in accordance with AUTOSAR. “A consistent, AUTOSAR-based way of working is the foundation for everything. It facilitates the reusability of software modules and the exchange with other participants and minimizes any interface problems between tools. The advantages of this way of working are felt virtually everywhere,”, says Dr. Luc Malrait. 
In the second step, the JTEKT developers then generate production code from the model using dSPACE TargetLink. This allows the software design to be checked at a very early stage in the development process – the effort required for any error corrections is then considerably less than at a later stage.
MXAM from MES (Model Engineering Solutions) is used for quality assurance of the model with regard to modeling guidelines, model structure, and model metrics (step 3). Also worth mentioning is the BTC EmbeddedTester (step 4), which allows functional tests of the code during its execution and also enables so-called back-to-back tests, which check that the behavior of the model and code basically match. 
 

Challenge: Version and Artifact Management

JTEKT practices a working method in which a large number of people work on the same projects in different locations. In order to maintain an overview, there are two key challenges that need to be overcome to ensure that the work as a whole runs smoothly:

• Artifact management: The collaborative way of working and the large number of tools inevitably result in large quantities of files (so-called artifacts), e.g., reports, data models, scripts, design documents, source code, text files, and much more. These must be neatly stored and managed in special directories/archives (so-called repositories).
• Version control: Because software developers are constantly generating new versions of the artifacts during their work, clear version management is essential so that current and previous versions can be tracked at all times.

Continuous Delivery in the Future

Continuous integration (CI) has established itself as a standard working method at JTEKT. With the help of the described working methods, JTEKT completes an average of more than 10 builds per working day. The next logical step is then planned for the future, i.e., continuous delivery (CD). Among other things, this will be driven by the upcoming developments relating to the software-defined vehicle (SDV), as this will regularly provide data from everyday use, which in turn will have to be taken into account in the development work.
 

dSPACE MAGAZINE, PUBLISHED MARCH 2024