Software

CONTROL SYSTEM DESIGN

The complete TTControl control system can be designed in three possible ways:

   • Programming in C

TTControl supplies a configuration program for the microcontroller. In addition, sample programs, written in C, are provided to aid the user of TTControl hardware and the CAN bus.

   • CoDeSys/IEC 61131-3

TTC 100, TTC 200 and TTC Vision support development with CoDeSys which is one of the most common IEC 61131-3 programming systems for PLCs and industrial controllers.

The CoDeSys Programming System is a free-of charge development environment. Also no additional compiler software is required.

CoDeSys produces native machine code for all common processors and guarantees the optimal use of the TTControl control system by supplying developers with a broad range of high-performance program development functionalities including offline simulation, download capacity as well as powerful online functions for debugging. 

The CoDeSys programming system also contains an integrated visualization that allows the development of visualization masks in one and the same user interface. The visualization information can be turned into IEC 61131-3 code, downloaded to TTC Vision and shown on the display.

The visualization integrated in CoDeSys can directly access the controller variables. The close linkage of the visualization and the controller permits operational forms which no longer require a conventional display device such as an extra PC. Furthermore, the masks created within the programming system can be utilized in all operational forms without having to be modified and if desired can even run in parallel on the controller. 

    • MATLAB/Simulink

MATLAB/Simulink is a powerful tool for the development of complex control algorithms. TTControl offers blocksets integrated into MATLAB/Simulink such as TTP-Matlink a blockset that facilitates the design and development of distributed real-time systems and the I/O Toolbox that is a comprehensive blockset for rapid prototyping and easy access to the I/O resources of the TTControl hardware targets

The I/O Toolbox contains blocks for all available input and output ports of supported targets, including TTP-By-Wire Box and TTC 200. After verifying the Simulink model, Real-Time Workshop® Embedded Coder from The MathWorks, Inc. can generate highly efficient C-code.

I/O Toolbox is an add-on product for use with Freescale MPC555 PowerPC®-based rapid prototyping hardware. The Simulink driver blocks of the I/O Toolbox provide your Simulink application with easy access to the I/O resources of these hardware targets.

COMMUNICATION DESIGN

The communication in a distributed control system using CAN as communication protocol can be designed by programming in C or with the standard CoDeSys tool.

For building fault-tolerant real-time networks with the Time-Triggered Protocol (TTP), TTControl offers an integrated software development environment that address the needs of the systems engineer in the off-highway vehicle control application domain. The software products support various communication protocols including TTP.

TTP Tools

For the use with TTP, TTControl offers TTP-Tools, the integrated software development environment by TTTech.

TTP-Tools are a powerful development and production environment for building fault-tolerant real-time systems. TTP-Tools address the needs of the systems engineer in the off-highway vehicles control application domain, as well as in automotive and aerospace industry. They provide rapid, harmonized, and systematic development while smoothly integrating with existing development processes. With TTP-Tools, the user can design a communication architecture, generate a fault-tolerant communication layer with a specialized code generator, configure the time-triggered operating system, download the resulting configuration to the target, and then test the distributed application.

TTP-Tools contain an overall cluster design tool (TTP-Plan), a node and task design tool (TTP-Build), including a TTP-specific fault-tolerant communication layer (TTP-FT-COM), and an embedded real-time operating system (TTP-OS). In addition, the set includes a download tool (TTP-Load) and an on-line monitoring tool (TTP-View). TTP-Matlink is another member of the TTP-Tools family. It fully integrates TTP-Tools with MATLAB® and Simulink® from The MathWorks. Thus, engineers can work with one standard development environment - from functional design to automatic generation of distributed code. The result is a tremendous cost and time advantage.

REMOTE ASSISTANCE - Easy-to-Use Solution for Mobile Applications

Remote access to vehicle data such as error logs or run-time parameters speeds up and simplifies vehicle diagnosis and significantly reduces maintenance costs and downtime. Remote Assistance provides a flexible and easy-to-use solution for enhancing Vision display controllers with remote assistance support.

The solution uses standard GSM modems for remote operation and Ethernet for local operation in order to connect a self-configuring PC-based service tool with a vehicle control system. In order to make best use of the limited GSM bandwidth, the remote assistance solution uses compression and dynamically adjusts the amount of transmitted data based on the currently visible parameters in the user interface.

The PC software synchronizes with the vehicle's control unit by downloading and interpreting an XML configuration file that is stored on the display controller. Run-time parameters can be monitored and modified over this connection. In addition, files can be loaded to the internal memory of a remote display controller, or to an optional remote-connected dual memory stick supporting USB and RS-232 interfaces.

With the included multi-language support it is possible to define multiple versions of all descriptive texts in the configuration file for different languages, which are then displayed in the PC application depending on the currently selected language.