Common Test Platform Research Articles

Verification and validation of embedded software in an automotive context: a systematic literature review

In automotive context, the embedded software Verification and Validation (V&V) is always a critical step for each project that involves testing solutions for new function, system optimization and compliance with legal requirements. However, automotive software V&V is laborious and time-consuming. Activities such as planning workshops at test tracks and public roads and functionality and durability tests require significant effort and robust coordination. The rigorous management and storage of test results are also a challenge. This review consolidates the state of the art on automotive software V&V to realize the most common standards in the industry and understand current testing concepts. The consolidated knowledge will help in the future development of a flexible V&V framework for embedded automotive software. A Systematic Literature Review (SLR) was performed by searching four digital libraries from 2011 to March 2022. Sixty-two papers were selected, which indicated that the automotive software V&V process is usually based on the ISO 26262 standard and that the software development life cycle V-model is the most common test platform in the automotive domain. Automotive software for a specific domain has been developed to cover a wide variety of vehicles. Variables from specific regions or countries can influence the entire V&V process for automotive software, such as differences in homologation requirements, infrastructure, driver behavior, customer desires, and electromagnetic force interference. The SLR identified specific characteristics of automotive software and regional factors that can affect the V&V process, as well as significant considerations to ensure correct decision-making, resource allocation, and support of team members.

Reliable assessment of carbon black nanomaterial of a variety of cell culture media for in vitro toxicity assays by asymmetrical flow field-flow fractionation

Carbon black nanomaterial (CB-NM), as an industrial product with a large number of applications, poses a high risk of exposure, and its impact on health needs to be assessed. The most common testing platform for engineered (E)NMs is in vitro toxicity assessment, which requires prior ENM dispersion, stabilization, and characterization in cell culture media. Here, asymmetric flow field-flow fractionation (AF4) coupled to UV–Vis and dynamic light scattering (DLS) detectors in series was used for the study of CB dispersions in cell culture media, optimizing instrumental variables and working conditions. It was possible to disperse CB in a non-ionic surfactant aqueous solution due to the steric effect provided by surfactant molecules attached on the CB surface which prevented agglomeration. The protection provided by the surfactant or by culture media alone was insufficient to ensure good dispersion stability needed for carrying out in vitro toxicity studies. On the other hand, cell culture media in combination with the surfactant improved dispersion stability considerably, enabling the generation of shorter particles and a more favourable zeta potential magnitude, leading to greater stability due to electrostatic repulsion. It was demonstrated that the presence of amino acids in the culture media improved the monodisperse nature and stability of the CB dispersions, and resulted in a turn towards more negative zeta potential values when the pH was above the amino acid isoelectric point (IEP). Culture media used in real cell culture scenarios were also tested, and in vitro toxicity assays were developed optimizing the compatible amount of surfactant.Graphical abstract

A Secure Interoperability Management Scheme for Cross-Blockchain Transactions

Blockchain technology has recently attracted tremendous interest due to its potential to revolutionize the industry by achieving decentralization while increasing the number of data sources, transparency, reliability, auditability, and trustworthiness. However, one of the major barriers to the widespread adoption of blockchain applications is the lack of mutual consensus and management across blockchains. Cross-blockchain consensus refers to one blockchain network reaching a consensus with another blockchain network to provide the ability to interact and share data. In this paper, we propose a secure management scheme with symmetric cross-blockchain communication and certificateless signature primitives, in which two heterogeneous blockchains are linked by a relay chain to simultaneously deliver cross-blockchain transaction security, achieve compatibility among various blockchains, and ensure the consistency of data exchanged, in practice. Additionally, our evaluation and security analysis shows the practicability and security of our proposed management scheme and demonstrates that a common test platform based on Ethereum can achieve acceptable computation costs.

Standardized Protocols for Platinum Group Metal-Free Fuel Cell Catalysts for Oxygen Reduction Reaction

In spite of very significant progress in performance of platinum group metal-free (PGM-free) electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in the past two decades, the activity and especially the stability and durability of these catalysts remain insufficient. This applies even to the catalysts derived from transition metals, nitrogen, and carbon via a high-temperature synthesis path, which have consistently shown the best performance among all PGM-free ORR catalysts developed to date. A very important requirement for accelerating the much needed progress in PGM-free electrocatalysis is the development of a common catalyst test platform, especially, since it became apparent some years ago that protocols developed for Pt-based ORR catalysts are inadequate for their non-precious metal counterparts due to the very different performance degradation routes in these two cases.In response to the growing need for uniform PGM-free catalyst test protocols, U.S. Department of Energy delegated the task of completing their development and validation to the Electrocatalysis Consortium (ElectroCat), created in 2016 as part of DOE-EERE’s Energy Materials Network (EMN). In this presentation, we will introduce protocols and performance test metrics, which have been approved by DOE’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office. We will also briefly summarize the results from the round-robin testing of two PGM-free catalysts, a commercial material from Pajarito Powder and a Fe-N-C catalyst synthesized at Los Alamos, recently completed at U.S. three national laboratories.We are using this opportunity to disseminate PGM-free test protocols and also justify their adoption in the electrocatalysis community with experimental data, which will be reported in greater detail in a separate presentation at this ECS meeting. Acknowledgements This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office under the auspices of the Electrocatalysis Consortium (ElectroCat).

In vivo human whole-brain Connectom diffusion MRI dataset at 760\u2009\xb5m isotropic resolution

We present a whole-brain in vivo diffusion MRI (dMRI) dataset acquired at 760 μm isotropic resolution and sampled at 1260 q-space points across 9 two-hour sessions on a single healthy participant. The creation of this benchmark dataset is possible through the synergistic use of advanced acquisition hardware and software including the high-gradient-strength Connectom scanner, a custom-built 64-channel phased-array coil, a personalized motion-robust head stabilizer, a recently developed SNR-efficient dMRI acquisition method, and parallel imaging reconstruction with advanced ghost reduction algorithm. With its unprecedented resolution, SNR and image quality, we envision that this dataset will have a broad range of investigational, educational, and clinical applications that will advance the understanding of human brain structures and connectivity. This comprehensive dataset can also be used as a test bed for new modeling, sub-sampling strategies, denoising and processing algorithms, potentially providing a common testing platform for further development of in vivo high resolution dMRI techniques. Whole brain anatomical T1-weighted and T2-weighted images at submillimeter scale along with field maps are also made available.

Deriving Common Factory Test Platform Requirements Using Historical Test Data

Deriving Common Factory Test Platform Requirements Using Historical Test Data

Development of a Common Differential Fuel Cell Test Fixture and Protocols to Expedite Material Development

Many test fixtures used for Membrane Electrode Assembly (MEA) development by the fuel cell community have major design drawbacks that both reduce the confidence in data sets and make the sharing of results difficult. A new common hardware design that incorporates the learnings and best practices from various technical leaders is needed to improve build robustness and reduce cell-to-cell variation. Such common hardware can yield improved data quality and accurate comparisons, thus accelerating materials development. Further, creating a common set of differential cell protocols along with corresponding data processing tools can facilitate sharing of results and researcher confidence in data quality. The design objective of the single cell hardware is to ensure MEAs are exposed to uniform conditions during testing of both performance and durability with minimal influence due to the flow field. In this talk, we will present the design and results from a simplified test hardware that can improve the overall quality of testing and facilitate comparisons from lab-to-lab. The design ensures as much as possible a uniform distribution of all physical quantities such as velocity, pressure, temperature, and oxygen concentration in the flow field. Minimal oxygen concentration gradient across land-channel is ensured in the design with parallel flow fields, having fine land of 0.24 cm, and operating at high (>10) stoichiometry. Pressure drop across the inlet and outlet ports in the hardware is also reduced by designing the ports for minimal restriction. Temperature and compression uniformity is also ensured in the design. The hardware is set to operate with stress control through a pneumatic system integrated into the anode end-plate with the additional capability to regulate compression during operation. To investigate the uniformity of key paramaters, FEA, CFD, thermal, and ohmic analyses were performed on the designed cell. Hardware replicates will be tested at multiple labs, and an operating procedure will be developed and shared with the community. Assuming successful development, we propose broad adoption of this hardware across the community as a common MEA testing platform. Figure 1

A new method for quantifying the performance of EEG blind source separation algorithms by referencing a simultaneously recorded ECoG signal

Blind source separation (BSS) algorithms extract neural signals from electroencephalography (EEG) data. However, it is difficult to quantify source separation performance because there is no criterion to dissociate neural signals and noise in EEG signals. This study develops a method for evaluating BSS performance. The idea is neural signals in EEG can be estimated by comparison with simultaneously measured electrocorticography (ECoG). Because the ECoG electrodes cover the majority of the lateral cortical surface and should capture most of the original neural sources in the EEG signals. We measured real EEG and ECoG data and developed an algorithm for evaluating BSS performance. First, EEG signals are separated into EEG components using the BSS algorithm. Second, the EEG components are ranked using the correlation coefficients of the ECoG regression and the components are grouped into subsets based on their ranks. Third, canonical correlation analysis estimates how much information is shared between the subsets of the EEG components and the ECoG signals. We used our algorithm to compare the performance of BSS algorithms (PCA, AMUSE, SOBI, JADE, fastICA) via the EEG and ECoG data of anesthetized nonhuman primates. The results (Best case >JADE = fastICA >AMUSE = SOBI ≥ PCA >random separation) were common to the two subjects. To encourage the further development of better BSS algorithms, our EEG and ECoG data are available on our Web site (http://neurotycho.org/) as a common testing platform.

Photo Book Permanence and Durability Standards and Their Impact on the Fulfillment Industry

Standardized testing and reporting of image permanence and durability performance using ISO standardized methods allows photo fulfillment companies to assess and promote product performance in a way that is easily comparable by both professional fulfillment laboratories and consumers. A previous paper reviewed standards being developed to test the performance of printed pages. This paper will focus on the development of a test method standard for photo book durability that will provide a common testing platform for photo book producers to help create high quality products in this important growth category.

High resolution characterization of engineered nanomaterial dispersions in complex media using tunable resistive pulse sensing technology.

In vitro toxicity assessment of engineered nanomaterials (ENM), the most common testing platform for ENM, requires prior ENM dispersion, stabilization, and characterization in cell culture media. Dispersion inefficiencies and active aggregation of particles often result in polydisperse and multimodal particle size distributions. Accurate characterization of important properties of such polydisperse distributions (size distribution, effective density, charge, mobility, aggregation kinetics, etc.) is critical for understanding differences in the effective dose delivered to cells as a function of time and dispersion conditions, as well as for nano–bio interactions. Here we have investigated the utility of tunable nanopore resistive pulse sensing (TRPS) technology for characterization of four industry relevant ENMs (oxidized single-walled carbon nanohorns, carbon black, cerium oxide and nickel nanoparticles) in cell culture media containing serum. Harvard dispersion and dosimetry platform was used for preparing ENM dispersions and estimating delivered dose to cells based on dispersion characterization input from dynamic light scattering (DLS) and TRPS. The slopes of cell death vs administered and delivered ENM dose were then derived and compared. We investigated the impact of serum protein content, ENM concentration, and cell medium on the size distributions. The TRPS technology offers higher resolution and sensitivity compared to DLS and unique insights into ENM size distribution and concentration, as well as particle behavior and morphology in complex media. The in vitro dose–response slopes changed significantly for certain nanomaterials when delivered dose to cells was taken into consideration, highlighting the importance of accurate dispersion and dosimetry in in vitro nanotoxicology.

Model-Based Design and it's Application in Power Window

Along with the continuous development of embedded systems, embedded products take higher requirements on the scale and performance of system software, and contributing to the complexity of control algorithm. So it would take more time and expense to realize the control algorithm. Therefore, traditional design is out of date and cant cope with the modern development rhythm well. While the Model-Based Design, is an efficient design method to deal with complex embedded control systems. It provides a common development and test platform for the engineers. In this paper, we take the power windows control system as example; establish the algorithm model with the Simulink/Stateflow. Then we introduce these process of the control system design which is based on the Model-Based Design method, according to the result of the final experiment, we prove the efficiency of this method, providing a reference for the design of other complex control systems.

Study on Common Ground Testing Platform Technology for Telemetry Core Equipment

On the basis of automatic test system of the status in domestic and foreign, by analysis of the various functions and performance of the integrated test system, a design of the integrated test system is proposed, FPGA as the core logic controller of the hardware circuit. The system of the hardware design include: digital signal source output modules, analog output module and PCM codec module. Design of hardware circuit are mainly described. In addition, a detailed analysis of some key technologies in the design process was given. Overall, its data exchange with host computer is through the PCI card, data link and bandwidth can be expanded in accordance with the actual needs. The entire system designed in the modular principle, which has a strong scalability.

The study of time-resolved measurement using ICCD positioning cosmic rays

Double layers of 150 mm?150 mm plastic scintillator arrays are used to locate the cosmic ray. Both layers of arrays are read out by wavelength-shifting fibers, which are bundled and coupled to image intensifier and ICCD camera. The light signal is delayed more than 200 ns by the image intensifier, so the ICCD can be pre-triggered by an external fast coincident signal. This cosmic ray positioning system is used to measure the time resolution and photon transfer time of the time-of-fly detector for the common test platform based on cosmic ray. Compared with traditional cosmic rays test, the data-taking efficiency of this system increases more than 30 times because of multi-point readout and higher position resolution. The test results show that the time resolution of the time-of-fly detector is better than 200 ps, which satisfies the requirement of the common platform based on cosmic ray.

A Common Testing Platform for Engine and Vehicle Testbeds

In order to achieve time-savings during vehicle development, companies are increasingly looking to run the same tests on the engine test bed as on the chassis dynamometer. The aim is to correlate results in order to highlight differences and their influencing factors, as well as to verify the engine test bed results, and to achieve the additional benefit of reusing existing tests. A common test automation and data platform is required. The article describes an application in which this has been achieved for emissions certification testing and discusses the value of upgrading the chassis dynamometer to a higher level of automation.