The automotive industry is undergoing a significant technological transformation, which is continually impacting the methods used to test the functionalities, delivered to end consumer. This includes the ever-growing need to embed software-based functions to support more and more end user functionality, while at the same time retaining existing and well-established functions, all within short development timelines. This presents both opportunities and challenges, with greater potential for reuse or leverage of test assets, although the actual percentage of leverage on real world projects is practically less than anticipated for a multitude of reasons. This paper collates the various factors which effect the practical leverage of test assets from one project to another, including various workflows and the interaction across components amongst applications lifecycle management systems. Alongside, it describes the current practices of basis analysis in isolation in combination with components of application lifecycle management (ALM) frameworks and their workflow across various levels of complexity products. During the analysis phase, few anti-patterns in the current approach are identified, leading to a shift in the paper’s focus towards introducing a novel approach that blends the basis analysis with re-defined means in using ALM frameworks. The novelty in this framework lies in applying a combination of various industry-leading concepts on keyword extraction, interaction matrix, blending the use of various mathematical co-efficient for basis similarity vs differences, the statistical evaluation of various combination of those in deriving the best fit for leverage of test assets. The resulting integration culminates in a very nuanced rule-based engine, which would seamlessly scale up from being an assisted framework to a fully automated framework, which enables in consistent and substantial leverage of test assets.
High step-up DC-DC converters are required in renewable energy systems to efficiently interface low-voltage sources with high-voltage loads and DC microgrids. The conventional high gain converter suffers from high voltage stress of semiconductor devices, low efficiency and complex circuit architecture. A high gain non-isolated switched inductor single-ended primary-inductor converter (SI-SEPIC) for renewable energy applications is presented in this research. The suggested topology adopts the switched-inductor network to realize a much higher voltage conversion ratio. The converter retains the intrinsic benefits of standard SEPIC converter, such as non-inverted output voltage and wide working range, which make it suited for solar systems, fuel cells, battery-powered systems and DC microgrids. The converter is analyzed in detail in terms of operating modes, steady state characteristics, derivation of voltage gain, design of components and performance evaluation. The proposed converter is experimentally validated with a laboratory prototype of 75 W. The experimental results support the validity of the proposed SI-SEPIC converter for renewable energy applications with steady operation; high voltage gain and high-power conversion efficiency.
As part of their market segmentation strategy, each OEM is using UX (user experience) as a crucial aspect for product differentiation. Though there are many parts to UX, the one which would have a profound effect on the user is through animation of real-world aspects on the instrument panel, like falling snowflakes when it’s snowing outside, real time traffic conditions as part of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) or even a unique welcome or farewell message. The unique and realistic nature of such implementations and customizing it to the needs of market segments introduces a lot of complexity in evaluating the correctness of implementation with respect to design. This paper extensively evaluates the current practices in analyzing the test basis, test environment needs, test data, and test methods used in testing animation. The primary focus of this paper is to introduce a novel multi-tiered approach to evaluating animations - presenting a framework for selecting test methods and determining their level of depth, based on the complexity of the animation, particularly in relation to dynamic interactions from various input parameters. The novelty of this framework lies in the ability to act as a comprehensive guide to test animations, starting from basic animations like single visual object fade in and fade out to the most complex animations involving various combinatorial input signals simultaneously by introducing a layered mathematical approach in analyzing the animation with respect to reference. This involves applying various industry-leading concepts on intensity levels, pattern match, interpolation techniques - along with statistically evaluating the best techniques for a given context and lastly aiding the test engineer in visualizing product behavior in an automated way.
Innovation in energy storage and generation system will lead to multiple power train solutions across the vehicle categories in the Automative segment. With various options to the end consumer across different vehicle segments, the complexity associated with E/E Architecture and software engineering will be multi-fold both for the OEMs and Suppliers. Over the air updates shall become mandatory features to manage this complexity and to calibrate the vehicle features in line with changing trends and efficiency plus feature enhancements in post-market release scenarios. These upgrades are more common in digital clusters, in-vehicle entrainment and central digital cockpits. OEMs are introducing the vehicle platforms in multiple power train variants keeping comfort, instrument clusters and in-vehicle entertainment as core features across different power trains. A well-defined and managed comprehensive optimal test strategy and infrastructure will be critical to ensure seamless release of the software solutions to different power trains during the product development phase and post-launch software upgrades. In this novel work, the paper extensively explores the current practices of segregating features through common versus specific powertrains, managing the overall test strategy across varied test types and test infrastructure; then address the advantages and challenges in current practices. The paper would summarize the optimal test strategy in approaching the software development pipeline for a multi-powertrain architecture and focus specifically on early test-driven interventions for robust software deployment on production for both parallel and staggered release pipeline
Proton Exchange Membrane Water Electrolysis (PEMWE) is a key technology for efficient hydrogen production; however, its reliance on iridium and PFSA-based polymers in the catalyst layer (CL) drives up costs and raises sustainability concerns [1] . Iridium remains the only stable catalyst for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in acidic conditions, and PFSA additives enhance proton conductivity and layer adhesion. While traditional methods with ~2 mg/cm² loadings forming thick catalyst layers that relied on ionomer as catalyst binder, the shift toward ultra-thin (~0.1 mg/cm²) sub-micron layers raises the question of whether ionomers will be necessary for the next-gen layers. Recently in ECS Prime’24 and in our white paper [1] , we demonstrated ionomer-free catalyst layers (ifCLs) with 0.4 mgIr/cm² coated on 25 cm² titanium porous transfer layers (PTL) yielding a -4 mV decay on a standard PTL and a +27 mV improvement on microporous layered version (MPL-PTL) after 500 hours of stability testing hold at 2 A/cm² and 60 °C. In short, the achievement of this performance metric is attributed to the high porosity and surface area of Ir, made possible by the spark ablation-based synthesis of 2–5 nm nanoparticles and their deposition into a micro-patterned layer [1] . Herein, for the first time, we will display the performance of our 0.1 mgIr/cm² ifCLs applied on Aquivion® membranes and PTLs, to realize CCM and CCS approaches, respectively. We will show our findings on the influence of CL loading and thickness on the surface conductivity across different substrates, and present electrochemical performance data from a 4 cm² Fraunhofer-ISE test cell, including polarization curves and impedance spectroscopy in an industrial-scale PEMWE setup operating at 80°C and 2 bar. Additionally, we will discuss the importance of pre-treatment and conditioning protocols chosen for ultra-low loadings and show that optimized nanoporous ifCLs fabricated via spark ablation reach 3 A/cm² below 1.8 V/cell - that is within the targets of the DOE 2026 [2] . We anticipate that our results will engage a broad audience across electrolysis fields as it circumvents the PFSA additives and facilitates precious metal recycling. [1] (a) Irtem et. al., Advanced Nano-Porous Thin Films: Automating Water Electrolysis with Spark Ablation Printing, 2024 ECS Meet. Abstr. MA2024-02 2855, (b) VSParticle B.V. (2025) White Paper, Advancements in scaling PEM water electrolysis with reduced iridium usage, Netherlands [2] Hydrogen Shot: Water Electrolysis Technology Assessment, Energy Earthshots U.S. Department of Energy, 2013 This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under the Grant Agreement No 101091777. © 2023 CLEANHYPRO Figure 1
