Front Zone Control Unit for Propulsion and Chassis Domains in a Zonal E/E Architecture – System Engineering Approach to Architecture Design
Authors: Tavella Domenico , Muhialdin Ali , Garante Enrico , Peciarolo Alessandro 
Published: April 2024

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">The modern automotive industry field is in the middle of a major transformation of the Electric/Electronics (E/E) system design, to meet the future mobility trends driven by Autonomy, Electrification and expanded Connectivity.</div><div class="htmlview paragraph">For these reasons, the ongoing industry trend is to move to more centralized E/E architectures by combining and integrating sub-systems and controllers, from either a functional domain standpoint (horizontal integration, or “cross-domain controllers”) or a geographical zone standpoint (vertical integration, or “central brain with zones”), with the objective to optimize cost, weight, power distribution, provide enhanced security and versatility. This is because electrification, autonomy and connectivity features are significantly increasing the demand for data processing bandwidth, network throughput, intelligent power distribution and wiring harness capabilities for additional sensors/actuators. The evolution to a Centralized Architecture is made possible with advancements in computing technologies (more performance, memory).</div><div class="htmlview paragraph">One step forward in this technological journey is the design of a Front Zone Control Unit (FZCU) that centralizes control supervisory functions from the Propulsion and Chassis domains, to implement a holistic cross-domain control concept that: <ul class="list disc"><li class="list-item"><div class="htmlview paragraph">Optimizes and consolidates control functional integration</div></li><li class="list-item"><div class="htmlview paragraph">Optimizes vehicle performance, by reducing latency</div></li><li class="list-item"><div class="htmlview paragraph">Provides seamless integration for EV Charging features, including “Plug&Charge” option, with a single-ECU HW/SW solution</div></li><li class="list-item"><div class="htmlview paragraph">Maximizes re-use across different vehicle and propulsion platforms</div></li></ul></div><div class="htmlview paragraph">while considering: <ul class="list disc"><li class="list-item"><div class="htmlview paragraph">Technical HW/SW design constraints (including OBD and Safety)</div></li><li class="list-item"><div class="htmlview paragraph">Calibration flexibility</div></li><li class="list-item"><div class="htmlview paragraph">Global features portfolio</div></li></ul></div><div class="htmlview paragraph">A System Engineering approach to Architecture design, useful to managing multi-layered complexity, will be investigated in this paper. The main architecture views explored are: <ul class="list disc"><li class="list-item"><div class="htmlview paragraph">Operational View (“Why design the system?”)</div></li><li class="list-item"><div class="htmlview paragraph">Functional View (“What functions are delivered?”)</div></li><li class="list-item"><div class="htmlview paragraph">Constructional View (“How to concretely implement the functions?”)</div></li></ul></div><div class="htmlview paragraph">This paper will describe the organization of the system elements and the sequence of process steps needed for a top-down system/control architecture design, up to the technical recommendations for FZCU HW and SW design.</div></div>