Safe and Secure Automotive Over The Air (OTA) Updates from the Ground Up

Context:

In modern vehicles, software lifecycles are constantly shortening, resulting in an increasing frequency of software updates. Those updates have the goal to fix bugs or rather errors, improve the reliability of the system or to integrate new features. To avoid the necessity to bring the car to a workshop for each new release, the updates are deployed Over The Air (OTA).
OTA updates are essential for future automotive systems and especially for the realization of autonomous driving.
ITIV is working on new development methods for safe and secure updates with focus on automotive domain. This includes the design, testing, deployment, and configuration & variant management. The resulting concepts are implemented and evaluated in a physical demonstrator.

Tasks:

Different research and implementation tasks are possible. They include (not limited to):

• Co-working on the further development of the demonstrator (Server/Client parts)
• Model-based design (E/E Architecture modeling)
• Variant and configuration management system
• Formal verification using contracts (pairs of assumption/guarantee)
• Simulation-based testing of safety-critical updates (using a digital twin)
• Configuration and security checks @Deployment
• Run-time checks on the Electronic Control Unit (ECU)
• Coupling the ECU network to one environment simulator (IPG CarMaker)

We are looking for:

• Motivated students with creative mindset looking for Bachelor/Master thesis
• Knowledge in Systems and Software Engineering, especially embedded systems
• Knowledge in programming languages (C/C++, Python, or similar)