This paper investigates the use of digital twins (DT) in connected, cooperative automated mobility (CCAM). At first, it provides a basic introduction to digital twins and their significance in expanding automated driving systems, which are crucial to Connected, Cooperative, and Automated Mobility (CCAM). The paper outlines three distinct scenarios in which digital twins playa vital role: monitoring vehicles from a remote location, conducting mixed reality testing, and ensuring the safe control of autonomous vehicles during emergency maneuvers and stops. Furthermore, it describes the architecture of an experimental test environment specifically created to implement and validate these use-cases. The study finishes by discussing the software implementation and presenting preliminary test results that provide evidence for the proposed concepts and the built architecture.

The development of automotive systems has become more complex due to the growing demand for sophisticated features, the necessity for smooth integration of technology, and faster production schedules, leading to numerous challenges in their development. To tackle some of these challenges, this paper introduces a practical method designed to simplify the early design and assessment stages of complex automotive systems through the use of sophisticated systems engineering methodolo-gies. It details the combination of Systems Modeling Language (SysML) and IBM Rational Rhapsody's Parametric Constraint Evaluator (PCE) within an improved Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) framework aimed at the development of complex systems. This fusion enables the virtual evaluation of parametric constraints and the analysis of engineering performance for different system configurations, thus enhancing the process of engineering analysis. We demonstrate the practicality and effectiveness of this approach using a generic automotive powertrain case study. This involves modeling a system based on specific requirements and evaluating its performance across predetermined configurations. Furthermore, the versatility of the MBSE framework is highlighted, showing its applicability beyond the automotive industry to encompass a wide range of engineering domains. This study aims to pave the way for more efficient and manageable development processes in the face of growing system complexity.

As systems grow in size and complexity, the challenge of comprehensively maintaining and understanding their structure also increases. Utilizing a Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) approach can be beneficial in addressing this issue. MBSE simplifies the system design process by using models to represent the system's structure and behavior, often represented through 2D UML/SySML diagrams. This paper explores the conversion of existing 2D system models into a 3D Modeling Format (3DMF) that accurately represents system structure and behavior. This conversion is foundational to the development of Proteus, a 3D visualization framework. Proteus is designed to enable the visualization of 2D system models from various modeling tools within a 3D environment, creating a live-link between these tools and the virtual reality (VR) space. This integration of Proteus into existing projects empowers system architects and developers to gain a more profound understanding and insight into their system models, going beyond the capabilities of conventional 2D model representations. Digital Twins technology is an emerging concept in the world of technology that produces virtual replicas that closely resemble physical objects. Within this realm, Proteus is designed to effortlessly incorporate 3D model visualization alongside these digital twins. This integration facilitates the use of 3D models in the design and testing stages of the systems being modeled, placing Proteus at the forefront of advancing Digital Twins technology. Proteus is designed with an abstract framework that not only facilitates its easy expansion but also leverages the benefits of incorporating 3D models into a virtual reality (VR) setting. This project enhances future developments by utilizing VR's immersive features to improve the exploration and understanding of system models, offering an immersive experience for system architects and developers.

Adaptive human-machine interfaces (HMIs) enhance driver safety and comfort by tailoring information presentation. While existing research identifies key adaptation parameters, their practical application remains challenging due to the complexity of rule-based decision making and the limitations of current authoring tools. To address these issues, this paper introduces AHSL, a domain-specific language for efficiently specifying message adaptation logic. By unifying established adaptation parameters within a hierarchical structure, AHSL simplifies rule creation and improves readability. Usability testing demonstrates AHSL's effectiveness in supporting intuitive and efficient decision logic development.

The increasing progress of Automated Driving (AD) technologies emphasises the significance of maps in ensuring the safety of these AD systems.While research has been conducted on the safety of AD systems themselves, the role of maps has not been thoroughly explored.In this article, we aim to address this gap by conducting an analysis to quantify the impact of maps on the functional safety of AD systems.We employ System Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA) to study an SAE Level 2 automated driving vehicle that relies on maps.Through this approach, we estimate and identify various unsafe scenarios that may arise due to map data.Furthermore, we conduct simulations using CARLA to measure the influence of safety-critical map features (identified based on the outcomes of STPA).To account for uncertainties in these safety-critical map features, we introduce a Gaussian noise signal into the model.To evaluate the vehicle's safety, we establish Key Performance Indicators and record their values across various test cases.Through this research, we successfully identified unsafe scenarios along with their corresponding map features.Leveraging simulations, we also showcased the admissible error margins in the map for the selected map feature, ensuring the secure operation of an AD system.

Autonomous driving is a growing research ield, that still has many challenges.The main challenges are related with decision-making algorithms, human-machine interaction and acceptance in the technology.Also, the absence of human drivers in autonomous vehicles creates a gap between users and pedestrians interacting with the vehicle.This article aims to de ine vehicle awareness, that eases the collaboration with users to improve safety and have a more human-like driving to increase the technology acceptance.In addition, our approach can be extended to express vehicle social awareness towards the pedestrians and road users.Our approach is based on affective computing.Affective computing is a tool to grant computers to genuinely become intelligent and interact better with humans.Moreover, one of its components is the generation of emotions, of which two of the most important elements are cognitive emotions and primary emotions.The article's objective is to design the model of a primary emotion component, based on safety and that can be personalized depending on the driving style of the user.This component is called the stress factor.The stress factor is correlated with the probability of an accident.The vehicle stress factors contain parameters that can be personalized as a function of a driving style.The stress factor is then attached to an existing cognitive emotion system (CarE) in the automotive domain which we called CarEs.The results of the system behavior showed promising results.The stress factor showed to be useful as a safety indicator.Also, the stress factor can be personalized with the vehicle operation state component.In conclusion, the new system known as CarEs generates vehicle awareness, by improving the vehicle's collaboration with the driver.The collaboration has a positive impact on the vehicle's safety and comfort, and people's reliance on automated vehicles.

Model–Driven Systems Engineering has been presented as a promising approach for developing complex systems. To address the complexity of systems, it is necessary to ensure that knowledge is transferred properly between projects, teams, and engineers. To avoid specification omissions and misinterpretations to surface in projects, clear communication is needed during the system’s development. The introduction of SysML and systems modeling was intended to improve the communication of design intent among stakeholders and engineers. System models have multiple diagrams that are all interconnected and interrelated, such that they represent a consistent view of a system. To comprehend the structure and the behavior of a complex system, proper visualization of the SysML models is needed. There are mature commercial tools that offers support to SysML modeling, and forming the major platforms for developing the SysML models. However, the current SysML modeling tools use 2-dimensional views to visualize the models, which limits the comprehension of a complex system. To overcome this limitation, the SysML models have to integrate into a 3D virtual environment. In this paper, we present the first step towards this solution by introducing the architecture and the implementation of a conversion layer, that converts a SysML model to a 3D representation. To validate the conversion layer a prototype is presented, which converts a SysML model developed with IBM Rhapsody into a 3D representation in the Unity Game Engine. The performed test showed that the complexity of the models can be comprehended more efficiently in 3D than in a 2D environment. Moreover, visualizing the SysML models in 3D offers a better understanding and insight into the structure and the behavior of a system. Coupling the 3D representation of the SysML models with the 3D CAD representation of the modeled system, as in the Digital Twin case, offers new ways of capturing the design of a complex system.

This paper presents the development of a Virtual Simulation Environment (VSE) and a Digital Twin (DT) of an autonomously driving truck for a distribution center. While autonomous driving on public roads still faces various technical and legal challenges, within a distribution center, which is a confined area, some of these restrictions do not apply. Therefore, distribution centers can be the first environment where the autonomous driving of trucks is possible. A distribution center is a closed environment with no, or minimal generic traffic, where the trucks have relatively low speeds, short stopping distance and layout precisely known. Dedicated sensors locate the trucks. This paper addresses the mentioned aspects of driving in the distribution centers describing the necessary steps taken for the design, implementation, and testing of a VSE for a distribution center, and a DT of an autonomously driving truck. The development of the VSE is based on the integration of a SysML modeling tool – IBM Rhapsody, MATLAB Simulink, and Unity Game Engine using a Model-Based System Engineering approach. The paper also presents the test and the validation of a driving scenario used in a distribution center, using the TruckLab setup of the Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands. The VSE and the DT showed considerable potential as testing and validation tools for automotive engineers, making it possible to define driving test scenarios for different types of tractor and trailer combinations.

Automotive systems are currently undergoing a rapid evolution through the integration of the Internet of Things (IoT) and Software Defined Networking (SDN) technologies. The main focus of this evolution is to improve the driving experience, including automated controls, intelligent navigation and safety systems. Moreover, the extremely rapid pace that such technologies are brought into the vehicles, necessitates the presence of adequate testing of new features to avoid operational errors. Apart from testing though, IoT and SDN technologies also widen the threat landscape of cyber-security risks due to the amount of connectivity interfaces that are nowadays exposed in vehicles. In this paper we present a new method, based on OMNET++, for testing new in-vehicle features and assessing security risks through network simulation. The method is demonstrated through a case-study on a Toyota Prius, whose network data are analyzed for the detection of anomalies caused from security threats or operational errors.

This paper describes the development of a software layer which monitors the functional behavior of an electric in-wheel motor controller. Due to the large amount of software, sensors and actuators present in such a powertrain system, the risk of E/E failures that cause hazardous situations needs to be considered. To this end, a software safety layer is developed which detects and controls safety goal violations during runtime. This is realized using a model-based design methodology in accordance with ISO 26262 part 6: Product Development on the Software Level. This paper describes the steps taken in the design and implementation of this functional safety monitoring layer, from requirements modelling in SysML to a MATLAB Simulink model suitable for production code generation.

The dawn of the fourth industrial revolution, Industry 4.0 has created great enthusiasm among companies and researchers by giving them an opportunity to pave the path towards the vision of a connected smart factory ecosystem. However, in context of automotive industry there is an evident gap between the requirements supported by the current automotive manufacturing execution systems (MES) and the requirements proposed by industrial standards from the International Society of Automation (ISA) such as, ISA-95, ISA-88 over which the Industry 4.0 is being built on. In this paper, we bridge this gap by following a model-based requirements engineering approach along with a gap analysis process. Our work is mainly divided into three phases, (i) automotive MES tool selection phase, (ii) requirements modeling phase, (iii) and gap analysis phase based on the modeled requirements. During the MES tool selection phase, we used known reliable sources such as, MES product survey reports, white papers that provide in-depth and comprehensive information about various comparison criteria and tool vendors list for the current MES landscape. During the requirement modeling phase, we specified requirements derived from the needs of ISA-95 and ISA-88 industrial standards using the general purpose Systems Modeling Language (SysML). During the gap analysis phase, we find the misalignment between standard requirements and the compliance of the existing software tools to those standards.

The ISO 26262 standard defines functional safety for automotive E/E systems. Since the publication of the first edition of this standard in 2011, many different safety techniques complying to the ISO 26262 have been developed. However, it is not clear which parts and (sub-) phases of the standard are targeted by these techniques and which objectives of the standard are particularly addressed. Therefore, we carried out a gap analysis to identify gaps between the safety standard objectives of the part 3 till 7 and the existing techniques. In this paper the results of the gap analysis are presented such as we identified that there is a lack of mature tool support for the ASIL subphase and a need for a common platform for the entire product development cycle. Keywords: ISO 26262, vehicle safety, safety standard, gap analysis

Recent advances in computer and network technology have made distributed systems appropriate for the provision of high quality services in many application areas, especially when execution time is the critical factor. Many modern problems are extremely computationally intensive, leading to an unavoidable compromise to the quality of the generated results in order to best fit time and budgetary restrictions. This paper reports on the implementation of a distributed architecture, suitable for the efficient execution of computationally intensive parallel jobs that may require/generate large volume of data. A cluster of networked computing nodes as a physical layer to the distributed architecture is considered. We present a job model for the submitted tasks that is derived from real-life application areas. Overlapping techniques are proposed as a method of reducing network delays. We prove that the proposed distribution of work over the nodes of the execution network is optimal, in terms of minimizing the execution time, with respect to the availability of resources. Certain configuration and implementation details are discussed, mainly in the job management and submission and delivery manager layers. We conclude by presenting our experience of testing the environment for computing-intensive 3D rendering jobs derived from the ESPRIT project EROPPA.

The paper describes the design, implementation, and use of a commercial metacomputing environment for computationally intensive loosely-coupled parallel applications. Much weight has been laid on practical and commercialisation aspects, and on business benefit. This distinguishes this work from many other metacomputing activities in a positive way. It demonstrates how a metacomputing environment can be used to improve a company's position in the market. A cluster of networked geographically dispersed computing nodes is considered as physical layer. The proposed distribution of work over the nodes of the execution network is proven optimal, in terms of minimizing the execution time, with respect to the availability of resources. We also present our experience on testing the environment for computing-intensive 3D-rendering jobs derived from the ESPRIT project EROPPA and demonstrate that the new environment can change dramatically the character of the post production business. (C) 1999 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

3D and VR applications require large amounts of computing time. In most applications it has to be available in a specific time span. In Cave or Immersive desk environments the power has to be available real-time. Much preparation can, however, be done on a longer time scale. Complex 3D applications in for instance the media industry require large computation power for rendering purposes in a timescale ranging from hours to a few days. Metacomputing environments, including a large number of machines, can be a useful tool for supporting these VR and 3D applications. Within the EROPPA project, a software environment for use by post production companies has been developed. Currently extensions to virtual surgery applications are investigated.