Implementation of a Generic Gateway as a Multipurpose Communication Node

Abstract: Steering and navigation systems play an essential role in governing today’s leisure boats. CPAC Systems AB, a subsidiary of Volvo AB, satisfies a large part of the global market needs for this kind of products. CPAC Systems, among others, manufactures a well-known “steer-by-wire” (SBW) control system, the “Electronic Vessel Control” (a.k.a. EVC). The need to connect the EVC to systems and devices designed by other companies resulted in the development of “gateway” devices, which have a primary role in preserving the integrity of the overall system architecture. Whenever the SBW communicates with external products, gateways are used as electric isolators and protocol translators, in order to protect the integrity of the SBW function. Today, a number of different gateway devices are required to match the different interfaces to which the CPAC’s EVC system has to be connected. This thesis aims to tackle the huge diversification of the requirements and evaluates the possibility of designing a “single” product that satisfies most of the requirements. In addition to that, the work aims to design a flexible device that could be easily updated to comply with the potential needs of the incoming applications. This isbeneficial in terms of both technology and cost-efficiency. Existing gateway products are designed to fulfill the assigned tasks or just to do a specific protocol conversion and apart from this significant difference with a generic gateway, they have some limitations concerning environmental conditions and prospective upgrades. Therefore designing, testing and implementation of one multifunctional gateway to be applicable as a multipurpose communication node to cover several functionalities, would be beneficial. Several challenges arose in designing the generic gateway device, such as: hardware design with a limited number of connection I/Os (solution is limited to 20 I/Os, whereas current gateway products require as many as 35 I/Os), robustness, final cost and power consumption. The contribution of the thesis was to analyse current gateway products, to design the hardware (Schematic and PCB), to implement the software, to debug the operation, to verify of the designed hardware to ensure the operation of each part. For gathering test results and investigation of communication or instruction signals, industrial equipment like digital oscilloscope and CAN analyser have been used to prove the operation of the device which are demonstrated in the “design tests” part. In addition, robustness of the gateway has been tested against several industrial test parameters, such as temperature variations, isolation, power supply robustness and typical power consumption. The results of these tests are iscussed in the “robustness tests” part. By fulfilling all of these steps and collaboration with the company team, satisfactory results have been achieved.