ECU Virtual Machine Software Update Segmentation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing electronic control units (ECUs) for vehicles face challenges in efficiently updating software across multiple virtual machines, as unsuccessful communication between update functions and management functions can lead to malfunction determinations, increased update time, and resource consumption.
Innovation Solution
An electronic control unit is designed with a first virtual machine, a file acquisition portion to obtain update files from outside the unit, and an update management portion that determines communication capability with update portions for different virtual machines, accepts files, and instructs capable update portions to perform software updates.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the update management portion determines communication failure with any update portion, then the overall update process is halted to prevent malfunction, but this increases update time and consumes resources unnecessarily when only some ECUs cannot communicate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the update process into independent per-ECU operations. The update management portion communicates with each update portion separately and processes them individually. When one ECU fails to communicate, only that specific ECU's update is affected, while other ECUs can still proceed with their updates. This segmentation prevents a single communication failure from halting the entire update process.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements partial action by allowing the update process to continue for ECUs that can communicate successfully, even when some ECUs fail to communicate. The update management portion performs updates for capable ECUs while skipping or marking as failed only those ECUs with communication issues. This approach achieves partial update completion rather than complete failure, reducing overall update time and resource consumption.
2Reliability
If the system waits for all ECUs to communicate successfully before proceeding with updates, then update reliability is maintained, but productivity decreases due to unnecessary waiting
Solution Approach 1:
The update process is segmented into independent tasks for each ECU. The update management portion can initiate and process updates for multiple ECUs in parallel or sequential order without requiring all to be ready simultaneously. This allows productive progress on available ECUs while maintaining reliability checks for each individual ECU.
Solution Approach 2:
The update management portion performs preliminary communication checks with each ECU individually before initiating their respective updates. ECUs that pass the check are prepared for update while those that fail are marked and skipped. This preliminary action allows the system to proceed productively with ready ECUs without waiting for all ECUs to be confirmed ready.
3Reliability
If the system retries the entire update process when one ECU fails to communicate, then comprehensive update coverage is achieved, but resource consumption and update time increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The update process is divided into independent per-ECU operations. When communication with one ECU fails, only that specific ECU's update is marked as failed or retried individually, while other ECUs' updates are preserved and can be completed without re-execution. This segmentation prevents unnecessary resource consumption on already-successful updates.
Solution Approach 2:
The system discards (skips) the failed ECU's update temporarily while preserving and recovering the successful updates of other ECUs. The failed ECU can be retried separately or marked for later attention, while the successful updates are maintained and applied. This approach recovers value from successful operations without wasting resources on complete process retries.
Data Source
AI summary
An electronic control unit having a first virtual machine includes a file acquisition portion that acquires a file to update software and an update management portion. The update management portion includes: a determination portion that determines whether communication is possible; between the update management portion and a first update portion that updates software of the first virtual machine; and/or between the update management portion and a second update portion that updates software of a second virtual machine connected to the first virtual machine; an acceptance portion that accepts the file from the file acquisition portion; and an update instruction portion that instructs one or more of the first update portion and the second update portion, which are determined by the determination portion to be capable of communicating, to perform a software update using the file accepted by the acceptance portion.