To capitalize on a market opportunity in Latin America for a range of medium- to heavy-duty vehicles, Iveco had to design, implement, test, and deliver a shift range inhibitor system for vehicles with 9- and 16-speed transmissions in about six weeks. The aggressive deadline required a compressed software development schedule that left no room for specification or implementation errors.
Model-Based Design with Simulink®and Simulink PLC Coder™enabled Iveco engineers to complete the transmission management system on schedule using existing programmable logic controller (PLC) hardware.
“Because we had so little time on this project, we could not use our usual development approach,” says Demetrio Cortese, embedded software manager at Iveco. “Instead, we adopted Model-Based Design and a custom workflow. Our system engineers and software engineers worked closely together using MATLAB and Simulink, which helped eliminate errors in requirements. The software engineers then generated the production code using Simulink PLC Coder, which accelerated development and minimized implementation errors.”