Fail-Operational Steer-By-Wire System for Autonomous Vehicles

Semi- and full autonomous driving systems have been highly discussed for years. Electrification and intelligence of vehicle increase steadily and strongly, especially in terms of autonomous driving systems. Higher safety requirements than common fail-silent or fail-safe concepts are necessary for new mechatronic functions with new challenges. Although fail-operational concepts in avionics provide a matured approach for decades, the automotive industry requires more cost-effective solutions for semi- and full autonomous vehicles. Safety-certified multi-core microprocessors are commonly used in electric and advanced driver-assistance (ADAS) vehicles. Since the complexity of functions in autonomous vehicles increases strongly, there are some systems (e.g. Steer-By-Wire system) which deserve a higher level of priority in terms of safety than other complex systems. The approach of multi-core microprocessor is not enough to fulfill both complexity and functional safety. Steer-By-Wire system plays a highly safety critical role in autonomous driving system. In this work-in-progress paper, an overview on avionics and multi-core fail-operational approaches is presented and initial hardware solutions are proposed. This research is based on the UNICARagil project, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) [1].