METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DEBUGGING AUTOMOTIVE APPLICATIONS IN AN ELECTRONIC CONTROL UNIT OF AN AUTOMOBILE

• US 20180032421A1
• Filed: 09/16/2016
• Published: 02/01/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/29/2016
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Wipro Limited
• Original Assignee: Wipro Limited
• Inventors: HATI, Amitesh, HATI, Monisha Rout
• Application Number:
  US15/267,284
• Publication Number:
  US 20180032421A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3624 by performing operations on the source code, e.g. via a compiler
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3656 using a specific debug interface
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/366 using diagnostics G06F11/0703 takes precedence

Abstract

Disclosed herein is method and system for debugging target automotive applications in an ECU of an automobile. A debug agent implemented in the ECU collects debugging information related to the target automotive applications and transmits it to an external computing system. The external computing system generates debugging instructions corresponding to debugging activities associated with the target automotive applications based on the debugging information and transmits the encoded debugging instruction to the debug agent. The debug agent decodes and forwards the decoded debugging instructions to a debug server in the ECU, which performs the debugging activities by executing the decoded debugging instructions, thereby debugging the target automotive applications. In an embodiment, the debug agent collects all vital information related to target automotive applications, hence, providing an effective method of diagnosing the target automotive applications. Further, the method also eliminates the need for taking the ECU out of the automobile during debugging.

Claims

1. A method for debugging automotive applications in an Electronic Control Unit (ECU) (101) of an automobile, the method comprising:

receiving, by a debug agent (107), a request for collecting debugging information related to one or more target automotive applications (103) in the ECU (101), wherein the debug agent (107) is implemented within the ECU (101), and wherein the debug agent (107) is accessible over an On-board Diagnostic (OBD) service;

collecting, by the debug agent (107), the debugging information related to the one or more target automotive applications (103) in the ECU (101);

transmitting, by the debug agent (107), the debugging information to an external computing system (115) over supplier diagnostics services (207) for analyzing the one or more target automotive applications (103), wherein the debugging information is in an encoded form;

receiving, by the debug agent (107), one or more debugging instructions corresponding to one or more debugging activities associated with the one or more target automotive applications (103) from the external computing system (115) over the supplier diagnostics services (207), wherein the one or more debugging instructions are in an encoded form; and

decoding, by the debug agent (107), each of the one or more debugging instructions for generating one or more decoded debugging instructions; and

performing, by a debug server (105) in the ECU (101), the one or more debugging activities associated with the one or more target automotive applications (103) in the ECU (101) based on the one or more decoded debugging instructions.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 further comprises receiving, by the debug agent (107), data associated with the one or more debugging instructions, wherein the data is utilized by the debug server (105) in the ECU (101) for performing the one or more debugging activities.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the supplier diagnostic service (207) is configured for including services for debugging support from the external computing unit by facilitating execution of a debug session with a firmware installed within the ECU (101) of the automobile.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the debugging information comprises at least one of internal state information, one or more state variables, program counter and stack information.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the one or more debugging activities includes at least one of setting a breakpoint, reading and writing data into memory of each of the one or more target automotive applications (103).

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the debug agent (107) communicates with a debugger (113) implemented in the external computing system (115) using a Controller Area Network (CAN) bus adaptor (111).

7. The method as claimed in claim 6, wherein the CAN bus adaptor (111) is interfaced between an OBD connector (109) associated with the ECU (101) and the external computing system (115).

8. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the external computing system (115) receives one or more debugging responses from the debug server (105) in the ECU (101).

9. The method as claimed in claim 1 further comprises modifying memory of each of the one or more target automotive applications (103) for debugging the ECU (101).

10. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the debug server (105) is capable of debugging each of the one or more target automotive applications (103) in each of one or more phases of production of the automobile including at least one of a pre-production phase and post-production phase.

11. A debugging infrastructure (102) to debug automotive applications in an Electronic Control Unit (ECU) (101) of an automobile, the debugging infrastructure (102) comprising:

a processing unit (117); and

a memory (119) communicatively coupled to the processing unit (117), wherein the memory (119) stores executable instructions, which, on execution causes the processing unit (117) to;

receive a request to collect debugging information related to one or more target automotive applications (103) in the ECU (101);

collect the debugging information related to the one or more target automotive applications (103) in the ECU (101);

transmit the debugging information to an external computing system (115) over supplier diagnostics services (207) for analyzing the one or more target automotive applications (103), wherein the debugging information is in an encoded form;

receive one or more debugging instructions corresponding to one or more debugging activities associated with the one or more target automotive applications (103) from the external computing system (115) over the supplier diagnostics services (207), wherein the one or more debugging instructions are in an encoded form;

decode each of the one or more debugging instructions to generate one or more decoded debugging instructions; and

execute one or more debugging activities associated with the one or more target automotive applications (103) in the ECU (101) based on the one or more decoded debugging instructions.

12. The debugging infrastructure (102) as claimed in claim 11, wherein the instructions further causes the processing unit (117) to receive data associated with the one or more debugging instructions, wherein the data is utilized to perform the one or more debugging activities.

13. The debugging system (102) as claimed in claim 11, wherein the supplier diagnostic service (207) is configured to include services for debugging support from the external computing unit by facilitating execution of a debug session with a firmware installed within the ECU (101) of the automobile.

14. The debugging infrastructure (102) as claimed in claim 11, wherein the debugging information comprises at least one of internal state information, one or more state variables, program counter and stack information.

15. The debugging infrastructure (102) as claimed in claim 11, wherein the one or more debugging activities includes at least one of setting a breakpoint, reading and writing data into memory of each of the one or more target automotive applications (103).

16. The debugging infrastructure (102) as claimed in claim 11 communicates with a debugger (113), implemented in the external computing system (115), using a Controller Area Network (CAN) bus adaptor (111).

17. The debugging infrastructure (102) as claimed in claim 16, wherein the CAN bus adaptor (111) is interfaced between an OBD connector associated with the ECU (101) and the external computing system (115).

18. The debugging infrastructure (102) as claimed in claim 11, wherein the instructions further causes the processing unit (117) to modify memory of each of the one or more target automotive applications (103) to debug the ECU (101).

19. The debugging infrastructure (102) as claimed in claim 11 is capable of debugging each of the one or more target automotive applications (103) in each of one or more phases of production of the automobile including at least one of a pre-production phase and post-production phase.