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The previous tutorials discussed the selection of I/O interfaces and how to use hardware fault insertion. HIL test applications use these interfaces to communicate with the electronic control unit (ECU) being tested and are composed of two primary execution systems: a deterministic, real-time application and a host application. This tutorial describes both the components and the tasks they perform.
Table of Contents
Application Requirements
A deterministic, real-time application executes on the real-time processor to provide many services, including hardware I/O communication, data-logging services, stimulus generation, and model execution. The host application executes on the operator interface and communicates with the real-time processor via Ethernet to provide test command and visualization services as well as test automation and data analysis. Whether you want to configure, program, or simply turn on your HIL test system, National Instruments offers a variety of development and integration options.
Configure
With NI VeriStand real-time testing and simulation software, you can quickly create your HIL test system application using a configuration-based approach, which reduces development cost and risk. NI VeriStand provides a flexible, multicore optimized application architecture ready to configure and use, ensuring successful HIL test system development. When necessary, you can customize and extend the open environment using NI LabVIEW, C/C++, and other environments to ensure NI VeriStand always meets your future application requirements. By using NI VeriStand to build your real-time test systems, you benefit from reduced development time and application maintenance costs as well as the functionality and performance improvements implemented with each revision of the product.
Learn how to develop HIL test systems with NI VeriStand.
Program
If you prefer to develop your own application architecture, National Instruments offers two programming toolchains designed to meet the specific needs of real-time test system application development.
The NI LabVIEW graphical programming environment provides the most efficient toolchain for developing real-time applications by combining the efficiency of graphical programming with engineering-specific functions and tight coupling to real-time I/O interfaces. Quickly create host applications for your operator interface with drag-and-drop user interface development and the power of graphically programmed functionality. Then use the same graphical language to create multicore-ready, parallel applications for your real-time processor. To help you get started, use the NI Reference Design for Real-Time Testing Applications, which provides complete, documented source code for creating HIL test system applications with LabVIEW.
Learn how to develop HIL test systems with LabVIEW.
NI LabWindows™/CVI is a proven ANSI C development environment that offers a comprehensive set of programming tools for creating HIL testing applications. It combines the longevity and reusability of ANSI C with engineering-specific functionality for real-time I/O interfaces, analysis, and user interface creation to provide an engineering-optimized environment for text-based application development.
Learn how to develop HIL test systems with LabWindows/CVI.
Turnkey System Integration
Receive an HIL test system built to your specifications with turnkey system integration. The National Instruments Alliance Partner program is a worldwide network of more than 600 certified system integrators who partner with NI to provide customers turnkey solutions. This partner approach to turnkey HIL test system development delivers the highest quality HIL test solutions at the greatest value. You benefit from a product company with a focused investment in product development and technology innovation. Because of the product volumes NI produces with this business model, the company can offer the highest quality products at the lowest cost and with the greatest availability. At the same time, you benefit from the deep domain expertise of certified integration partners whose business model helps them provide superior system delivery times and on-site services.
To learn more about turnkey integration services, contact your local NI field engineer.
Other HIL Test System Application Tools
National Instruments offers many other tools for HIL test application development.
Reconfigurable I/O Customization Software—Use the LabVIEW graphical field-programmable gate array (FPGA) development toolchain with NI reconfigurable I/O (RIO) interfaces to easily create custom I/O personalities, deploy models for high-speed execution, and offload signal processing tasks in your HIL test system. Using the LabVIEW FPGA Module, you can define your own hardware personality without in-depth knowledge of hardware description languages.
Creating and Using Models—Real-time system models are a crucial component of
your HIL test system application. National Instruments offers a control design and simulation option for the LabVIEW development environment that combines high-level modeling components with the power of a complete programming language. This gives you the ability to produce multicore-optimized, real-time models that you can use with your NI VeriStand, LabVIEW, or LabWindows/CVI HIL applications. These development environments also work with many third-party modeling environments and can combine models from different tools in the same HIL test application. You can also import models from a variety of third-party modeling environments.
Explore LabVIEW for control design and simulation.
Test Automation and Requirements Traceability Software—Increase the efficiency and quality of your HIL test system by adding test automation, requirements traceability, and enterprise connectivity. NI TestStand is a powerful ready-to-run test management environment that helps you develop, manage, and execute test sequences written in any programming language. NI Requirements Gateway is a requirements traceability solution that links your development and verification documents with formal requirements. By organizing and managing requirements and the documents or applications that cover them, NI Requirements Gateway helps improve the quality and efficiency of your development process.
View how to add test automation to your HIL test system.
Discover how NI Requirements Gateway can improve your development process.
Analysis and Reporting Software (optional)—Accelerate your HIL test system analysis and reporting tasks with NI DIAdem software. Use DIAdem to interactively create reusable analysis scripts and report templates or implement automated analysis and report processes. With support for many third-party analysis packages, DIAdem can deliver a unified process for quickly turning HIL test system data into results you can use to make decisions.
Use DIAdem to optimize your data analysis and reporting.
Summary
National Instruments has been helping engineers achieve HIL test system success for more than a decade. To begin creating your NI HIL test system, view the reference systems or request a free consultation with your local NI field engineer to see additional product demonstrations or create a custom configuration for your HIL test system.
Find additional resources to assist you with your HIL test system development or learn how others have achieved success with the NI HIL platform at ni.com/hil.
The mark LabWindows is used under a license from Microsoft Corporation. Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries.
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