ASAM Making an Impact

October 25th, 2005

I last ran an article on the Association for Standardisation of Automation and Measuring Systems (ASAM) standards back in January 2001. At the time, it looked like a promising initiative. Today, I am happy to report that much of that promise has been realized.

What ASAM is trying to do is to create standards for data models, interfaces, and syntax specifications for a variety of applications (e.g. testing, evaluation, simulation). The drawing below is a graphical interpretation of how the various ASAM standards fit together:

Back in 2001, many of the standards were still in development. Now, many of them have been released, including:

• ASAM ODS (Open Data Service) defines a generic data model (for universal interpretation of data), interfaces (for model management, data storage and data retrieval), and a data exchange syntax and format.
• ASAM AE (Automotive Electronics, incl. ASAM MCD and MSR activities) defines interfaces and data structures for automotive electronics development and test processes.
• ASAM GDI (Generic Device Interface) defines interfaces to measuring devices and intelligent subsystems as well as a syntax for a generic description of their capabilities.
• ASAM ACI (Automatic Calibration Interface) defines interfaces between automation and optimization components, which evaluate an optimized set of parameters for control systems.

The following standards are in definition phase and specify common communication methods between applications:

• ASAM CEA (Components for Evaluation and Analysis) defines a component interface and the necessary basic functionality for the creation of project-specific overall applications from modular measured data evaluation and analysis tools.
• ASAM CCC (Component Communication and Co-ordination) provides methods facilitating comprehensive communication between software components.

Why do I say that the promise shown in 2001 is being realized? Well, yesterday, I attened ASAM User Days, the first ASAM User Group meeting to be held here in the United States. Not only did the user seem enthused about using the ASAM standards, but there were vendors there displaying products that support the ASAM standards, including:

• AVL
• dSPACE
• ETAS
• Horiba
• LMS
• Softing
• T-Systems

These products covered the entire product life cycle, from design to service.

Another indicator of the success of the ASAM standards is the effect they’ve had on other standards organizations. Parts of the MCD standard have been influenced, and have had an influence on the ISO 22900, “Road vehicles — Modular vehicle communication interface (MVCI)” series of standards.

I think these standards will only continue to gain momentum, and I plan to cover them more in the future. So stay tuned.

Entry Filed under: Standards