Honda Research Center Europe discusses Model-Based Development approaches

Automotive IQ sat down with Antonello Ceravola, Principal Scientist at Honda Research Center Europe, and talked about model-based development at Honda RC, ahead of the conference where Mr. Ceravola also will be presenting.

Please tell us a bit about your current projects involving MBD at Honda RC.

Currently we are using our MBD framework for car related projects where we research intelligent driver support systems.

How long have you been applying MBD and what improvements have you seen because of it (for example based on statistics, case studies measuring improvement, etc.)?

We had one of our first releases of MBD framework starting from 2002-2003. Adoption of such methodology took still some years. Adoption-growth followed the successful results achieved by early adopters. Among the many improvements we could experience an increase in reuse of software, higher quality and the ability to fix problems in a more robust way and in much shorter time than in the past.

What have been the main challenges in applying a MBD approach and how did you go about solving them?

One of the main challenges has not been technical; rather it has been about the implementation of the change management process, moving to the new MBD methodology. People are very resistant to change, particularly if they feel skilled at their own practices.

One of the main challenges in MBD is the growing complexity in the software. What’s your approach to complexity and what methods do you use?

The experience in creating the most complex systems showed that each phase of the development process introduce complexity and therefore needs MBD. Particularly for large systems, any small problem that would be hidden in a too complex phase has the potential to injure the whole system. Complexity should be managed from several different perspectives and not reduced to a single phase (for instance the pure coding phase). For instance, in the process of creating our MBD framework, we reach a stage where it was relatively easy to integrate large systems, but, as consequence, debugging became more complex. The introduction of a reporting system, able to list and keep track of the latest updated software parts of a system in a kind of news-journal style, gave us a boost in localizing bugs.

What advice would you give to an organization who is about to transition to MBD. What are the measures to avoid common mistakes?

It is very important to prepare the transition and crucial to be supported by management. Moreover, MBD should not be seen as a methodology only for creating software, while it should be considered for all steps involved in the creation of a system.

What are you presenting at the conference this year and why is this significant to the industry?

In my presentation I am showing how MBD can be applied along the different stages used in the creation of a system. I will be describing some of the models used in our development process.