Virtual ECU

A virtual electronic control unit (vECU) is a software-based representation of an ECU that runs on a PC or server, rather than on physical hardware. A virtual ECU may consist of a simulation model, automatically generated code, handwritten code, or any combination of these elements.

As a core building block of broader virtual development in automotive, a vECU decouples software development from hardware availability. For virtual testing, a vECU usually is executed alongside vehicle plant models (such as engine, motor, battery, and vehicle dynamics) and test environments in a closed-loop fashion. Virtual ECUs and software-in-the-loop (SIL) testing enable automotive engineers to develop, integrate, and validate embedded software earlier in the development cycle, accelerating innovation and reducing costs.

Use Cases of Virtual ECUs

Virtual ECUs can support a broad range of workflows from architecture to calibration, validation, and deployment, enabling teams to iterate faster and identify integration issues before hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) and vehicle tests. High-value-added use cases include:

• Early development without hardware:
  Run production code on a PC/virtual platform before silicon or target ECU hardware is available.
• Virtual software integration testing:
  Verify software components’ interface (e.g., AUTOSAR RTE), middleware communication, and inter-ECU signals.
• Virtual calibration:
  Perform controls tuning (powertrain, BMS, ADAS/AD, etc.) and calibration on the desktop.
• Continuous integration (CI) and non-regression testing:
  Automate integration and HIL-like scenarios in CI pipelines, catching defects earlier.
• End-to-end feature validation:
  Cosimulate multiple vECUs on a virtual vehicle network (e.g., the perception, fusion, and actuation process in ADAS).
• Virtual robustness testing:
  Systematically inject sensor faults, communication dropouts, or power-cycle events at scale without damaging hardware.

Virtual ECU Creation, Integration, and Simulation with Simulink

With Simulink^® and Model-Based Design, you can create, integrate, and simulate various levels of virtual ECUs, enabling you to validate system design and functionality virtually on a PC:

• Design your software control logic using Simulink, Stateflow^®, and AUTOSAR Blockset.
• Generate production code from your control algorithms with Embedded Coder^®.
• Export portable vECUs in the Functional Mock-up Interface (FMI) format directly from Simulink models or production code.
• Develop plant models using physical modeling tools such as Simscape™ and Powertrain Blockset™.
• Integrate your virtual ECU—whether built in Simulink or from third-party sources—with plant models within the Simulink environment.
• Simulate the complete vECU in a closed-loop SIL environment in Simulink and scale simulations to the cloud for large-scale testing.