The development of an electrical system is a multi-stage process involving a high degree of specialization to create a highly customized, complex product. To support this process efficiently, the automotive companies and suppliers working together in the Vehicle Electrical System Workflow Forum (VES WF) are defining the “Vehicle Electric Container” (VEC) as a complete digital product model and are developing methods for cross-company, model-based development. In addition to the further development and maintenance of the standards "Vehicle Electric Container" (VEC, PSI-21 / VDA 4968) and "Cable Harness List" (KBL, PSI-19 / VDA 4964), the project group is developing implementation guides and using case-related tutorials to prevent the development of dialects.
The ECAD Implementor Forum (ECAD IF) is the platform for system providers. It helps vendors and users implement and test solutions based on these standards by providing implementation guidelines and collaborative testing. The activities of VES WF and ECAD IF are closely interlinked. Vendors are involved at an early stage in the process of reviewing the implementation guidelines and discussing open issues and planned model enhancements.
Since the above-mentioned standards are in industrial use, the VES WF currently has two main areas of focus: on the one hand, the requirements-oriented further development of the VEC based on feedback from the projects using it, and on the other hand, the topic-oriented further development based on foreseeable future challenges. The following results and topics of the project group 2024 are particularly noteworthy:
1. Publication of the VEC as an ontology
The XML representation of the VEC model, which has been available since the inception of the initiative, is well suited for the exchange of self-contained and complete data sets at defined points in time. However, technological trends in the industry show that there is an increasing demand for a networked, interoperable and distributed representation of data. Dataspaces, linked data and knowledge graphs are some of the buzzwords that represent this trend.
The technical basis for making data available in such an ecosystem is a semantic description of the underlying model using ontologies.
In order to be able to use VEC data unambiguously in such an environment in the future, all VEC versions (including those already published) will be provided as an ontology based on the “Resource Description Framework (RDF)” in addition to the classic XML representation and will be available for download in the ECAD Wiki from this year onwards.
Two specific applications of these new technical possibilities in the context of the VES WF and ECAD IF are (see also points 2 and 3):
2. Digital Change Description
In a change-driven process such as electrical system development, the precise digital description of change content and its exchange between partners is an essential enabler for a wide range of potentials.
By making the VEC model available as an ontology, the range of technical solutions available for this topic is extended. After thorough analysis and discussion in the group, RDF was chosen because, unlike the classic XML representation, it allows model parts or even individual attribute values to be exchanged clearly and precisely.
Da es sich hierbei um technisches Neuland handelt, wurde in der zweiten Jahreshälfte ein Proof-Of-Concept gestartet, der zum Beginn des neuen Jahres abgeschlossen sein wird. Erste Zwischenergebnisse sind bereits vielverspreche As this is uncharted technical territory, a proof of concept was started in the second half of the year and will be completed at the beginning of the new year. The initial interim results are already promising.
3. Automated Compliance Tests
The use of ontologies makes it possible to define semantic rules from the data model in a formalized and standardized way, and to check them automatically using freely available tools (open source). With the methods available to date, it was only possible to perform a syntactic check. Simple semantic relationships could only be described textually. To achieve a high level of interoperability for a complex model such as the VEC, it is essential not only to describe the implementation rules in text form, but also to check them automatically.
For this reason, a compliance test suite with an initial set of formal semantic rules has been created as part of the ECAD IF. These can be verified in RDF environments using standard technologies. Conventional VEC XML data could also be checked against the same rules using a freely available toolkit from 4Soft.
The aim is to create an ever-expanding set of rules that both avoids the formation of dialects and helps implementers of the standard to test their solutions.
4. „Digital Wiring Systems“
The "Bordnetze Digital" congress took place for the first time this year in cooperation with ARENA2036 in Stuttgart. This first joint project between prostep ivip and ARENA2036 was a great success. The cooperative organization of the event ran smoothly and the congress attracted a large number of participants. A high-quality program was also put together. A sequel to the event is already being planned for next year.
5. „Standardization Initiative Wire Harness“
The "wire harness standardization initiative", ARENA 2036, formulates the DIN72036 standard with the aim of achieving a higher degree of automation in wire harness production. The requirements of this initiative that are known to date have been implemented in the VEC release 2.0 (2022/2023). This will make it possible in the future to assess the standard compliance of the wire harness design based on the VEC descriptions. The upcoming VEC 2.2 release, scheduled for mid-2025, will already implement new requirements of the next version of the standard.
6. Projekt „Verwaltungsschale für den Leitungssatz“
The ARENA2036 project "Administrative Shell for the Wire Harness" is concerned with the implementation of the Industry 4.0 Administrative Shell as an interoperable digital twin for the wire harness value chain (including production). The VEC is used here as a sub-model for specifying the product. The “OPC UA Companion Specification Wire Harness Manufacturing” is also being developed as part of this initiative. This also uses parts of the VEC model for the specification of the product. With VEC release 2.1 (end of 2023/beginning of 2024), new requirements from the area of production were also implemented.
7. VEC & the Cloud
The industrial cloud, with new collaboration concepts, software architectures and current initiatives such as Catena-X, promises potential but also places new demands on the provision of information. How the VEC model and its technical representations relate to this is currently under consideration. This is another reason why the project group presented its current results at this year's "Bordnetze Digital" congress in Stuttgart. Interesting presentations set the tone and were followed by an interactive panel discussion.
The ECAD IF has proven to be an effective platform for exchange between implementing companies. It is used intensively to clarify implementation issues before implementing VEC concepts. This has certainly helped to avoid the emergence of one or two dialects. The errors identified during the validation of the test data provided were reported back to the participants. The errors identified during the validation of the provided test data were reported back to the participants.
Online collaboration via Teams has established itself well for processing simple issues. Regular face-to-face workshops over the past year were necessary for the sometimes very innovative and complex topics. However, due to travel restrictions, most face-to-face meetings were also offered as 'hybrid' events. The ECAD IF participants have responded well to the regular two-week, one-hour team meetings.
In 2025, the change description based on RDF will be further advanced and elaborated in detail. To this end, it is planned to promote the implementation of the change description, for example, through tutorials and other supporting materials. Work is also underway to define the product model for developing wiring systems in the cloud. A particular focus is on the transfer of isolated change content, with the aim of developing concepts for cloud-based provision of design data. Representations that build on each other should contain references to their base data. In addition, the project will investigate how to link an OEM's specification to the manufacturing view in such a way that changes can be communicated in both directions, including process-specific transformations. Another important area of work in 2025 will be the processing and implementation of VEC issues and the production of additional implementation guides. The ECAD IF plans to carry out test rounds in the areas of master data, circuit diagram and wiring.
„The excellent and harmonious cooperation within our project groups was the key to our success. Through intensive dialogue and joint engagement, we have been able to address important issues and achieve significant milestones. Tools such as JIRA, Confluence and the wiki have played a crucial role in facilitating collaboration and significantly increasing our efficiency.“
„The VEC model is proving its worth as an exchange model in our new VOBES2025 tool chain. The KBL is no longer sufficient for our new use cases; the VEC helps here. By participating in the project group, we can help shape the development of the standard and help fill the few gaps.“
„As a member of ECAD-IF, we benefit from a strong community that allows us to work together to solve the challenges of implementing standards such as VEC and KBL and to advance the development of wiring systems.“
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