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Design of Dual MCU Vehicle Control Unit Based on Electric Vehicles to

Respond to Control Failure
To cite this article: Jiashun Li et al 2020 IOP Conf. Ser.: Earth Environ. Sci. 512 012132

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AESEE 2020 IOP Publishing
  Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 512 (2020) 012132
IOP doi:10.1088/1755-1315/512/1/012132

Design of Dual MCU Vehicle Control Unit Based on Electric

Vehicles to Respond to Control Failure

Jiashun Li, Dan Li*, Ying Xu

School of Automation, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, Hubei,
China
*
Corresponding author’s e-mail:[email protected]

Abstract.The Vehicle Control Unit (VCU) is the core component of the entire car. It is
responsible for collecting the accelerator pedal signal, brake pedal signal, gear signal and other
component signals, and makes corresponding judgments based on the vehicle status to control
the next controllers of each component of the layer act to drive the electric vehicle. This article
introduces the overall system structure of the electric vehicle and the structural characteristics
of the Vehicle Control Unit, analyzes the benefits of the dual MCU Vehicle Control Unit to the
electric vehicle, and finally establishes the corresponding detection and response methods
when various possible failures occur. The detection and response mechanism uses the main and
auxiliary dual MCUs as the control core and cooperates in processing. When the main MCU
fails, the auxiliary MCU takes over the control to avoid the uncontrollable safety problems
caused by the control of the entire vehicle when the single MCU fails.The dual MCU controller
uses the main and auxiliary differentiated design, and the functional design of the main and
auxiliary MCUs is based on the functional modularity idea. After the main MCU meets the
functions of vehicle control and other functions, the sensor signal detection and other functions
are added to the auxiliary MCU. A dual MCU Vehicle Control Unit based on electric vehicle
response to control failure is presented.

1. Introduction
In recent years, with the continuous development of China's technology, many high technologies have
been applied to the field of automotive research and development. With the continuous loss of energy
in China, the development and application of new electric vehicles is a very popular technology. The
Vehicle Control Unit used in traditional electric vehicles is generally a single MCU architecture, and
the system stability and safety of this architecture are not ideal. [1]The main parts and foundations
need to be constantly reformed and improved by the design principles.
First of all, the overall safety of the dual MCU electric Vehicle Control Unit hardware design must
be ensured, because the safety performance of the car is the first and most basic link. In the process of
designing the Vehicle Control Unit hardware, certain It should be based on the safety principle of the
system as a standard, and at the same time, a reasonable design should be carried out in accordance
with the design requirements specified by the state. The dual MCU in the design of the dual MCU
pure electric Vehicle Control Unit introduced in this article mainly refers to the independent MCU unit
and MCU communication. When the main MCU fails or other problems occur, the auxiliary MCU can
independently determine the critical parts of some computing aspects, thereby ensuring that the
auxiliary MCU can respond to the failure of the main MCU. The function of protecting the safety of

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Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd 1
 
 
 
 
 
AESEE 2020 IOP Publishing
  Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 512 (2020) 012132
IOP doi:10.1088/1755-1315/512/1/012132

the entire system. Therefore, the application of MCU pure electric Vehicle Control Unit hardware
equipment is a key step to ensure the safety performance of pure electric vehicles.

2. Overview of electric vehicle systems

2.1Electric vehicle system structure composition

Pure electric vehicles only rely on the electric energy provided by the power battery pack as a power
source to drive the motor to rotate, thereby providing power for the entire vehicle. The structure of a
pure electric vehicle mainly includes a motor drive system, an energy management system, a vehicle
control unit, a charging control unit, a power conversion device (DC / DC), and an instrument display
system. Its basic structure is shown in Figure 1. The battery and management system are the energy
source of the vehicle; the motor and control system provide power for the vehicle; the Vehicle Control
Unit (VCU) collects gear signals and pedal signals to control the discharge of the battery and the
operation of the motor; the charger is the battery Group charging; the motor control system converts
the DC high-voltage power of the battery pack into AC power to drive the motor to rotate,
[2]providing power for the entire vehicle; the instrument provides the driver with vehicle operating
status information.
battery and
charger power
management system

Gear signal
Vehicle motor and wheels and
pedal signal Control control system transmission
Unit(VCU) system
other signals

instrument
display system
Figure 1 The basic structure of an electric vehicle

2.2Structure of electric Vehicle Control Unit

VCU is a dispatch control center for electric vehicles, which is responsible for communicating with
other vehicle components and coordinating the operation of the entire vehicle. The VCU system
structure is shown in Figure 2. It mainly includes power circuit, digital input / output module, analog
input module and CAN communication module. The power module takes power from the on-board
battery. The signals received by the switch input module mainly include key signal, gear signal and
brake switch signal; the switch output signal is mainly a control relay, which has a slightly different
meaning in different vehicle systems , Under normal circumstances, such as water pump relay, fan
relay, EV relay and PTC relay. The analog input module collects accelerator pedal and brake pedal
opening signals and battery voltage signals. The CAN module is responsible for communication with
other equipment of the vehicle. The main equipment includes the motor controller (MCU), battery
management system (BMS), display instrument, DC / DC module and charger.

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AESEE 2020 IOP Publishing
  Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 512 (2020) 012132
IOP doi:10.1088/1755-1315/512/1/012132

car power

power circuit

Key signal
gear signal to
switch CAN
charge switch input other
bus
brake signal units
other signals Vehicle Control
Unit(VCU)

accelerator pedal opening A/D switch to relay

brake pedal opening acquisition Output box
battery voltage signal module

Figure 2 Block diagram of the Vehicle Control Unit

2.3Main functions of VCU

①Vehicle driving control: collect driver's driving needs and manage vehicle power.
②Network management: monitor communication network, information scheduling, information
summary, and act as a gateway.
③The auxiliary drive of the instrument monitors and displays the vehicle status.
④Fault diagnosis processing: Diagnose and detect the faults of sensors, actuators and other
components of the system and carry out corresponding fault processing, and display faults in real time.
⑤ Energy management and online configuration and maintenance.
⑥Power distribution: Calculate the distribution of motor power through comprehensive vehicle
information including battery SOC, battery pack temperature, motor temperature, etc., and perform
vehicle drive and braking energy feedback control. [3]
⑦Other driving assistance functions, such as anti-slip car control when starting on a hill.

3. Research significance of dual MCU Vehicle Control Unit

Compared with the traditional single MCU Vehicle Control Unit, the design and manufacture
of the dual MCU Vehicle Control Unit is more complicated, but it can make the electric vehicle
obtain more superior performance and improve its safety, and can avoid many shortcomings of
the single MCU Vehicle Control Unit, for example, when the brake pedal or accelerator pedal fails,
the vehicle may lose control.[4] There are the following three research significances for studying the
Vehicle Control Unit based on the main and auxiliary dual MCUs of electric vehicles:
(1) Test and respond to various possible failures
Use an inductive analysis method to conduct functional safety analysis, list the various situations of
potential Vehicle Control Unit control failures, and summarize them, classify their severity levels, and
determine the corresponding detection methods for each severity level of failure and coping style.
(2) Avoid the failure of the main MCU
In order to achieve the design goals of the Vehicle Control Unit, the dual MCU architecture is
adopted in the system architecture design. The main and auxiliary MCUs are selected separately, and
the main and auxiliary MCUs are designed with independent power supply circuits. The master-slave
architecture mode is adopted between the master and slave MCUs, that is, the master MCU is
responsible for signal collection, logic operation and the sending of control commands to control the
normal work of the vehicle, and the slave MCU is responsible for monitoring the master MCU and
sensor signals to determine whether the master MCU is working There are exceptions, and when the

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AESEE 2020 IOP Publishing
  Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 512 (2020) 012132
IOP doi:10.1088/1755-1315/512/1/012132

main MCU fails, it will take over the basic functions of the main MCU in time to ensure the normal
operation of the vehicle's basic control functions and improve safety. [5]
(3) Reduce the coupling degree of the system
The design of the main and auxiliary MCU, with the main MCU meeting the functional
requirements of vehicle control, the auxiliary MCU realizes the sensor signal detection and the main
MCU failure monitoring function, and the basic normal control function after taking over as the basic
design idea, to achieve the main and auxiliary MCU function With the decoupling between the
functions, the design of the Vehicle Control Unit is implemented with the corresponding functional
modular design.

4. Design idea of dual MCU Vehicle Control Unit

For electric vehicles, the Vehicle Control Unit is equivalent to the brain of the entire vehicle.
Therefore, the Vehicle Control Unit has many tasks and very important positions in the process of
running the vehicle. The functions of the Vehicle Control Unit mainly include the following points.
The first is the ability to discern the road conditions on the driving road, and the reasonable analysis
ability when the entire car fails, and it can also handle the faults of the car at different levels, and the
Vehicle Control Unit will also The entire vehicle is controlled in various situations during driving, and
the Vehicle Control Unit can effectively analyze all the drivers' ideas and intentions during driving,
helping the driver to more easily during driving To control the car, the Vehicle Control Unit can also
calculate the distance and route of the trip, so that the driver can reasonably control how far he has to
reach his destination during driving. [6] Finally, the ability of the Vehicle Control Unit is to have
safety management capabilities and the ability to optimize the management of the internal energy of
the car, ensuring that the car is effectively controlled from the inside to the outside, making the
driver ’s Safety performance is greatly improved. In the design process of the electric vehicle, the
Vehicle Control Unit must combine the overall structure and frame requirements of the electric vehicle,
so that the various designs of the Vehicle Control Unit can be more reasonable and the functions are
more comprehensive. In the design process of the controller hardware of the electric vehicle, it must
also be combined with the car's own structural framework for reasonable design, and the internal
circuit design of the MCU selection and so on must also be paid attention to. Only in this way can the
various functions of the entire hardware structure meet the standards, so that the overall safety
performance of the electric vehicle is guaranteed.
For the Vehicle Control Unit, the MCU is the most basic and core part of the Vehicle Control Unit.
The main task of the MCU is to collect, process, and calculate the data, which can improve the
Vehicle Control Unit during use. The reliability of this article is to explore the hardware design of the
electric Vehicle Control Unit in dual MCUs. Therefore, there are two main MCU and auxiliary MCU
in the design process. The main MCU is responsible for the signal collection, processing and
calculation functions, and then the effective control of the corresponding control instructions on the
data of the calculation results according to specific logic, so as to achieve the expected function is up
to standard. The function of the auxiliary MCU is to diagnose the fault, and monitor the operation of
the main MCU through various signal data. When the main MCU is not faulty, the auxiliary MCU can
continue to collect various data, but the collected data is the main data during the driving of some cars.
The calculation and corresponding implementation of these key signals can ensure that the vehicle
continues to drive safely in the event of a failure of the main MCU. [7]When the main MCU fails, the
vehicle system will actively turn off the signal transceiver, so that the auxiliary MCU completely
replaces the main MCU to perform various data control during the entire vehicle driving process. All
in all, the dual MCUs perform security checks on all data of the entire car and perform calculation
processing to ensure effective control under safe conditions and ensure the normal operation of various
parts of the car. The application and implementation of dual-MCU electric Vehicle Control Unit
hardware can effectively improve the safety performance of pure electric vehicles during driving and
use,[8] which not only ensures the safety of pedestrians, but also improves the use of vehicles.
Efficiency, the basic design idea of the dual MCU Vehicle Control Unit is shown in Figure 3:

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AESEE 2020 IOP Publishing
  Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 512 (2020) 012132
IOP doi:10.1088/1755-1315/512/1/012132

Sensor signal
input

auxiliary
MCU

main MCU monitor main

YES MCU and
sensor signal

signal
processing the main MCU
works normally？

NO

send out take over

control the main
signal MCU
Figure 3 Flowchart of Design Ideas for the Double-MCU Vehicle Control Unit

5. Design scheme of dual MCU Vehicle Control Unit

The functional modules of the Vehicle Control Unit are mainly divided into: single chip
microcomputer module, power module, sensor module, transmission module and drive module. The
main MCU is responsible for signal processing and control of the vehicle during normal operation, and
the auxiliary MCU is responsible for detecting the work of the MCU and the sensor In the state, when
an abnormality is found, the auxiliary MCU takes over the processing and control of the vehicle signal,
and if necessary, disconnects the circuit power supply in time.[9] Through the Altium Designer
hardware design platform, the hardware circuit of each functional module is designed, and the final
PCB board design work is completed. The 3D modeling of specific PCB circuit board design is shown
in the figure:

3D model diagram of the main MCU circuit board 3D model diagram of auxiliary MCU circuit
board
Figure 4

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AESEE 2020 IOP Publishing
  Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 512 (2020) 012132
IOP doi:10.1088/1755-1315/512/1/012132

As shown in the schematic diagram of the MCU circuit, the Freescale K60 chip is used as the main
MCU, and the Freescale MC9S12XE chip is used as the auxiliary MCU.

MK60DN512ZVLQ10 MC9S12XE
Figure 5

6. Conclusion
Compared with the traditional single MCU Vehicle Control Unit, the design and manufacture
of the dual MCU Vehicle Control Unit is more complicated, but it can make the electric vehicle
obtain more superior performance and improve its safety, and can avoid many shortcomings of
the single MCU Vehicle Control Unit, for example, when the brake pedal or accelerator pedal fails,
the vehicle may lose control.The design of the complete vehicle controller for the dual MCU that
controls the failure should adopt embedded development of the dual MCU complete vehicle controller,
the function is modular, the auxiliary MCU function module reflects a certain difference from the
main MCU,and the main and auxiliary MCU adopt the master and slave Architectural mode, that is,
the main MCU is responsible for signal collection, logic operation and sending of control instructions
to control the normal work of the vehicle, and the auxiliary MCU is responsible for monitoring the
signals of the main MCU and sensors to judge whether the working status of the main MCU is
abnormal, and taking over the basic functions of the main MCU in time when the main MCU fails to
ensure the normal operation of the vehicle's basic control functions and improve safety.

References
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[3] Yayun Li. Research and design of electric vehicle VCU diagnostic system [D]. Hebei University of
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[4] Zhaolong Xu, Yanfei Liu, Yihui Wang. Design of an intelligent vehicle autonomous control
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[5] Deqing Du. Development and test of electric vehicle VCU fault diagnosis system [D]. Jilin
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[6] ChuanLi . The design of a complete electric vehicle controller [D]. Tianjin University, 2016.
[7] Feng Zhu. Research on the design and failure analysis method of pure electric vehicle controller
[D]. Harbin Institute of Technology, 2012.

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AESEE 2020 IOP Publishing
  Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 512 (2020) 012132
IOP doi:10.1088/1755-1315/512/1/012132

[8] Ning Wang. Hardware design research of pure electric vehicle controller based on dual MCUs [J].
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