Kettering University Researcher Develops Communications Architecture and Protocol for Safety Critical Systems in Automotive Applications

FLINT, Mich.--July 15, 2004--Kettering University Professor Juan Pimentel has researched and developed an architecture and protocol he calls FlexCAN, which is based on CAN protocol and is suitable for highly dependable systems. Pimentel, a faculty member in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, also integrated SafeCAN into his system, which deals with error detection and fault management of buses and nodes used to communicate electronically with other system components inside a vehicle.

His system is simpler and cheaper for automakers to incorporate into vehicles while sustaining the high quality of research necessary to create systems to protect drivers in emergencies. Pimentel's work enhances the current CAN protocol used in the industry today, which is very different from what other companies and firms are currently doing, he said. His architecture and protocol rely on commercially over the shelf (COTS) CAN components available on the market. Pimentel said this is vastly different from other companies as they work in developing safety critical systems from scratch, which is costly and often passed on to the automaker and thereby the consumer, due to the complexity involved in creating a system that works effectively.

The development of FlexCAN is now at a stage that allows use of the system for evaluation purposes in the design and incorporation of safety critical systems. In the past few years, some of the projects that utilized various aspects of FlexCAN include simulation, target implementation, diagnostics, network management, testing and verification. Pimentel recently held a demonstration in Kettering's Computer Networking Laboratory that involved a steer-by-wire system built on FlexCAN and SafeCAN. Representatives from the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) attended the demonstration and have shown considerable interest in standardizing this protocol. Additionally, more than 20 representatives from such international firms as Ford, Bosch, dSPACE, EDS, Delphi, Lear, Vector CANTech Inc., Ricardo, and USDI attended the demonstration. If this proves to be the case, Pimentel believes a large percentage of future cars might use the protocol.

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