ASAM MCD-3 MC

History

ASAM MCD-3 Measurement and CalibrationMC started life in the early 1990s as a company-specific Specification from AVL List that defines a serial interface protocol based upon RS232 for test stand automation systems. The Specification was used as the foundation to create the first public Standard under the name ASAP3. In subsequent years, the Standard was further developed and TCP/Internet Protocol (IETF Standard)IP was added as a second supported protocol.

By the end of the 1990s, ASAP3 was given to ASAM and renamed to ASAM MCD-3. The members of ASAM created new strategic guidelines for further developing the Standard. The Standard was promoted to a higher level, now describing a hardware-independent software interface rather than a hardware-dependent protocol. The drafts of the two specifications ASAM MCD-3 D and ASAM MCD-3 Measurement and CalibrationMC have been merged into one Standard. Data and functions were described via object-oriented models. The new Standard supported significantly more use-cases for test stand automation and automated Calibration than before. A library implementation from Vector Informatik was used as the template for the first version of this fundamental re-design of the Standard. The Standard was released as version 1.0 in 2003. The Standard was further matured and revised with the help of prototype implementations and cross-testing events.

With version 2.0 and 2.1, the Watcher- and Recorder-services have been added. Since the requirements for the Measurement and CalibrationMC part and the Diagnostics part of the Standard increasingly diverged, ASAM decided to split the Standard into two independent standards. Since version 3.0, the name of the Standard is now ASAM MCD-3 Measurement and CalibrationMC. This version improves the initialization-time of Measurement and CalibrationMC-servers and the connection and release of client application.

Motivation

The main motivation for ASAM MCD-3 Measurement and CalibrationMC and its predecessors is to provide standardized and abstracted access to ECU Calibration parameters and Measurement data. The Standard uses Calibration tools for this purpose, which have direct access to such data. The Standard adds a server module to Calibration tools with a specified software interface. The interface completely decouples client applications from hardware-, bus-, protocol- or vendor-specific properties of subsequent components of the tool chain.

Since the Measurement and CalibrationMC-server is implemented as a software interface, the server interface is directly available in programming languages and scripts that can be written by end users. Measurement and CalibrationMC-servers according to this Standard provide ECU data in their physical representation format, i.e. 50km/h instead of 0x3C. This has the advantage that programs for test automation or automated Calibration are independent from the ECU software. They can be easily ported to different ECUs and different tools.

Further Development

Current requirements to improve the standards in the Measurement and CalibrationMC-3 area are:

better support for current ECU software data objects
markedly higher performance, esp. with remote connections
multiple client support

In the market, ASAM ASAP3 is still the most important Standard. As a consequence, this Standard will be further developed.

To cover the performance requirements of modern Measurement and CalibrationMC-3 systems, the Public Specification iLinkRT will be transfered to ASAM as a public Standard. iLinkRT allows to carry out high performance data transfer for Measurement and Calibration. The new Standard will be combined with ASAM ASAP3. The merged versions should be compatible to the previous versions to allow easy migration.

In the future, iLinkRT with multiple client support will be used at protocol level. It can be used as a stand-alone Standard or in combination with an ASAM XIL-compliant Application Programming InterfaceAPI. The focus of both, Application Programming InterfaceAPI and protocol level is the connection between a Measurement and CalibrationMC-tool and a test bench.

The ASAM MCD-3 Measurement and CalibrationMC Standard will exist in parallel and is usable for applications that focus on an Application Programming InterfaceAPI in the Measurement and CalibrationMC area.

Application Areas

The primary application area is test stand automation. The execution of tests for ECUs, vehicle subcomponents, engines and complete vehicles is mostly automated in today's test labs. Tool setup, configuration, programming and debugging could consume a significant portion of the available time for testing and the utilization of expensive test stands. ASAM MCD-3 Measurement and CalibrationMC is one provision to significantly reduce this time.

Some further areas of use for the Standard is in Hardware in the LoopHIL testing (although now increasingly replaced by ASAM XIL) and automated Calibration. The latter is actually an advanced Use-Case for test stand automation. This Use-Case is still not often seen in the industry, since many Calibration tasks are deemed to be too complex for automated execution. However, the Standard provides the necessary features to support this application area.

Technical Content

Architecture of an MC-Server

The Measurement and CalibrationMC-Server is part of a Calibration system or modular vehicle communication system. Such systems have access to Measurement variables and Calibration parameters on an ECU. The task of the Measurement and CalibrationMC-Server is to collect data from the ECU while it is running and to make the data available to client applications via a programmatic interface. The functions of data collection and the interface to client applications are standardized through ASAM MCD-3 Measurement and CalibrationMC as an object-oriented Application Programming InterfaceAPI. To carry out the functions, the server consist of three functional blocks:

Database: classes to access the meta data of measurement and calibration objects
Measurement: classes to acquire measurements
Calibration: classes to set and acquire calibration parameters

Specifically, the Measurement classes can be further subdivided into classes that implement specific functions:

Collector: data logging and synchronous transfer to clients
Recorder: data-logging and asynchronous transfer to clients
Watcher: triggering of data logging

Collectors and Recorders acquire data according to a data acquisition list. A data acquisition list is defined in ASAM MCD-3 Measurement and CalibrationMC via a "collection". In general, collections in the sense of this Standard are objects of the same kind that shall be logically grouped together. In this respect, a data acquisition list is considered to be a collection.

The data is acquired through "logical links". The Standard defines a logical link as one physical communication line to one ECU that uses a specific interface and protocol. Logical links contain all Collectors defined for the ECU and all Calibration objects available on the ECU.

Data bases, logical links, Recorders and Watchers are put together in a "project". All references to data objects within one project can be resolved. The Measurement and CalibrationMC-server may hold the definition of several projects, but can only work on one active project at the same time. Consequently, all clients connected to one Measurement and CalibrationMC-server work on one specific project.

Clients and the Measurement and CalibrationMC-Server do not necessarily have to run on the same computer. They may communicate via a remote interface with each other, e.g. via COM/DCOM. ASAM MCD-3 Measurement and CalibrationMC provides a COM-Interface Description LanguageIDL file for implementing such an interface.

The following chapters describe the primary functions of an Measurement and CalibrationMC-server and the classes that are available to carry out those functions: provide access to Calibration objects and to collect Measurement data from an ECU. Furthermore, one chapter covers the access to the Measurement and CalibrationMC-server Is an organized collection of data.Database.

Access to Calibration Objects

ASAM MCD-3 Measurement and CalibrationMC provides a comprehensive Application Programming InterfaceAPI to retrieve meta data about Calibration objects and to remotely manage Calibration objects. The Application Programming InterfaceAPI supports the full range of Calibration objects in an ECU:

Scalar: single value
Value block: array
ASCII: sting
Curve: 1D look-up table
Map: 2D look-up table
Cuboid: 3D look-up table
4D look-up table
5D look-up table

For the first Use-Case, - retrieve meta data about Calibration objects -, the Standard defines one class for generic read-access methods applied to all Calibration objects.

Class	Function
MCDDbCharacteristic	Get name, descriptions, memory address, data type, display identifier, calibration limits, format string, maximum allowed value change, reference to computation method and the read-only attribute of the calibration object

This class is actually a parent class for specific Calibration object Application Programming InterfaceAPI classes, as listed in the next table. Their Application Programming InterfaceAPI provides additional read-access methods on top of MCDDbCharacteristic, which is specific to the Calibration objects.

Class	Additional Function
MCDDbScalarCharacteristic	none
MCDDbValueBlockCharacteristic	Get the x-and y-dimensions of the array
MCDDbAsciiCharacteristic	Get the maximum number of characters of the string
MCDDbCurveCharacteristic	Access to the axis
MCDDbMapCharacteristic	Access to the axes
MCDDbCube3DCharacteristic	Access to the axes
MCDDbCube4DCharacteristic	Access to the axes
MCDDbCube5DCharacteristic	Access to the axes

Axes of look-up table Calibration objects have their own access classes.

Class	Function
MCDDbAxisDescription	Get name, descriptions, axis type, data type, deposition type, calibration limits, format string, maximum allowed number of axis points, reference to axis points, reference to the variable for the working point of the table, reference to computation method, get read-only attribute
MCDDbAxisPoints	Get the names and number of axes, find axes by index or name
MCDDbAxisPts	Get name, descriptions, memory address, display identifier, calibration limits, maximum allowed number of axis points, maximum allowed value change, reference to the variable for the working point of the table, reference to computation method and the read-only attribute of the calibration object

For the second Use-Case, - remotely manage Calibration objects -, the Standard defines Application Programming InterfaceAPI classes that allow to read and write the values of Calibration objects in an ECU. Furthermore, classes exist to handle concurrent access to the objects and to add or remove them from collections.

The following table lists one Application Programming InterfaceAPI class, which provides generic access methods to Calibration objects.

Class	Function
MCDCharacteristic	Get name and descriptions, handle concurrent access to the calibration object from multiple clients, e.g. locking and unlocking of access to the object

This class is actually a parent class for specific Calibration object Application Programming InterfaceAPI classes, as listed in the next table. Their Application Programming InterfaceAPI provides additional read- and write access methods on top of MCDCharacteristic, which is specific to the Calibration objects.

Class	Calibration Object	Access to ...
MCDScalarCharacteristic	Scalar	Values
MCDValueBlockCharactersistic	Value block	Array values
MCDASCIICharactersitic	ASCII	String array values
MCDCurveCharacteristic	Curve	X-axis array Curve table array
MCDMapCharacteristic	Map	X-axis array Y-axis array Map table array
MCDCube3DCharacteristic	Cuboid	X-axis array Y-axis array Z-axis array Cuboid table array
MCDCube4DCharacteristic	4D look-up table	X-axis array Y-axis array Z-axis array W-axis array 4D look-up table array
MCDCube5DCharacteristic	5D look-up table	X-axis array Y-axis array Z-axis array W-axis array V-axis array 5D look-up table array

Those Calibration object Application Programming InterfaceAPI classes use secondary Application Programming InterfaceAPI classes for the read- and write-access to table values as per the next table.

Class	Access to ...
MCDVectorCharacteristic	Curve table array
MCDMatrixCharacteristic	Map table array
MCDMatrix3DCharacteristic	Cuboid table array
MCDMatrix4DCharacteristic	4D look-up table array
MCDMatrix5DCharacteristic	5D look-up table array

The Standard defines some more Application Programming InterfaceAPI classes on this level for read-only access to table values as per the next table.

Class	Read-only access to...
MCDValueCurve	Curve table array
MCDValueMap	Map table array
MCDValueCube3D	Cuboid table array
MCDValueCube4D	4D look-up table array
MCDValueCube5D	5D look-up table array

Those secondary-level Application Programming InterfaceAPI classes use third-level generic Application Programming InterfaceAPI classes for read-only access to array values of various dimensions, as per the next table.

Class	Read-only access to ...
MCDValueArray	Values of a generic 1D array
MCDValueMatrix	Values of a generic 2D array
MCDValueMatrix3D	Values of a 3D array
MCDValueMatrix4D	Values of a 4D array
MCDValueMatrix5D	Values of a 5D array

Read access can start and end at specific array index positions, so that only a sub-array is returned. The same applies to write access. Besides reading and writing of the actual parameter values, the Application Programming InterfaceAPI classes also have methods to read the array's dimensions, i.e. number of elements for each dimension.

Access to Measurement Objects

ASAM MCD-3 Measurement and CalibrationMC provides a comprehensive Application Programming InterfaceAPI to retrieve meta data about Measurement objects and to remotely manage the logging of Measurement objects.

For the first Use-Case, - retrieve meta data about Measurement objects -, the Standard defines one class for generic read-access methods applied to all Measurement objects.

Class	Function
MCDDbMeasurement	Get name, descriptions, default sample rate, accuracy, resolution, array size, data type, display identifier, format, limits and reference to computation method

For the second Use-Case, - remotely manage the logging of Measurement objects -, the Standard defines two objects, which are described in the next chapters.

Collector: data logging to a ring buffer and synchronous transfer of the data to clients
Recorder: data-logging to files and asynchronous transfer of the data to client

Collector

Collectors log the values of Measurement and Calibration objects from the ECU with a common rate in a ring buffer and makes the data available to clients every time one sample of a Measurement has been finished. The use of Collectors is suitable, when the bandwidth between the Measurement and CalibrationMC-system and the clients is big enough to transfer the data while the acquisition is continuously running. The collection of data is started and stopped by Watchers, which may include manual triggering from a client.

Collectors log data according to a data acquisition list and some further acquisition parameters that has been set up by their client. The data acquisition list consist of the names of Measurement and Calibration objects (i.e. MCDDatatypeShortName). All objects on the data acquisition list need to be tied to the same logical link. In case of Calibration objects, the list further defines the sub-objects, e.g. axes or tables, and which cell value or a range of cell values shall be acquired. The data acquisition list and sample rate must be set up by the client before the Collector can be activated. All further acquisition parameters can be optionally set by the client, as they have default values. Those parameters are:

Time stamp: If set to "true", then a relative time value is added to each sample. The zero-point of all time values is the first activation of any Collector, Watcher or WriteReadRecorder during the life-time of the MC-server. This provides a common time base across all acquisitions, including acquisitions with multiple clients.
Rate: Defines the data acquisition sample rate.
Down-sampling: Defines that only each n^th value shall be stored.
Start delay: Defines the time between activation of the Collector and start of sending data to the client. A positive value indicates a delay between activation and start. A negative value indicates that data shall be sent to the client that has been captured before the activation point-of-time.
Stop delay: Defines the time between deactivation of the Collector and stop of sending data to the client. A positive value indicates a delay between deactivation and stop. A negative value indicates that the stop shall occur before the deactivation point-of-time.
No of samples: Number of samples in the buffer when the Collector informs about that a measurement is ready to be sent (onCollectorResultReady event).
Buffer size: Number of samples that the buffer can store.

The Collector is addressable by clients in its initial state eOS_CREATED. A client application can add the names of Measurement and Calibration objects to the acquisition list during this state. The trigger condition may be set and the ring buffer can be configured. In the state eOS_CONFIGURED, the Measurement and CalibrationMC-server checks that data acquisition is possible with the given acquisition list. Once activated, the Collector transitions into the state of eOS_ACTIVATED and starts to continually write the data to its ring buffer. The trigger condition is monitored.

The Collector reaches the state eOS_STARTED_PENDING, once the trigger condition evaluates to "true" and a positive start time delay was defined for the data acquisition. The Collector now waits until this time elapsed. Data transfer to the client starts in the state of eOS_STARTED. Every time the buffer has been filled with a complete Measurement sample, the Collector signals to a client via an onCollectorResultReady event, that a new sample is available. Clients have to actively pull this data from the Measurement and CalibrationMC-server. If a client does not pull the data in time, a buffer overflow could occur. The Collector would report that to the client with a buffer overflow event (onCollectorError).

During the started state, the Collector monitors the stop trigger condition. When the stop condition is met, the Collector moves to the eOS_ACTIVATED_PENDING state and continues to transfer data until a positive stop time delay has elapsed. The Collector then transitions back into the eOS_ACTIVATED state. In case the logical link becomes offline during data acquisition, the Collector automatically falls back into the state eOS_CONFIGURED. Every state transition of a Collector is reported via events to clients.

ASAM MCD-3 Measurement and CalibrationMC defines several classes for setting up and managing Collectors and their data acquisition lists.

Class	Function
MCDCollectors	Get the names and number of Collector objects, find Collectors by index or name, add, deactivate or remove Collectors
MCDCollector	Get name and descriptions of Collector, activate, change the configuration, check the configuration, configure the fire event, start acquisition, stop acquisition, deactivate, get start and stop delay times, get and set start and stop watcher objects, get current state, manage the buffer, transfer results to client, get errors, get lock state
MCDCollectedObjects	Get the names and number of collected objects, find collected objects by index or name, add scalar, value block, curve and map, remove collected objects
MCDCollectedObject	Get name and descriptions of collected object, get the collected object's description, get the measurement or calibration objects
MCDScalarCollectorDescription	Get the representation type of a scalar
MCDValueBlockCollectorDescription	Get the representation type of a value block
MCDCurveCollectorDescription	Get the representation type of a curve
MCDMapCollectorDescription	Get the representation type of a map
MCDCollectorEventHandler	Process Collector events on creation, configuration, activation, start pending, start, activate pending, lock, unlock, data logging results ready, modification of the data acquisition list and occurrence of an error
MCDBuffer	Get and set buffer size, sample rate, down sampling factor and time stamping flag, get error and filling level

A Collector has a data acquisition list (accessible via the MCDCollectedObjects class), which contains references to Measurement and Calibration objects. Their meta data can be access via the classes of the following table.

Class	Function
MCDDbCharacteristics	Get list of calibration object names, get number of calibration objects in the list, find calibration objects in the collection by index or name
MCDDbMeasurements	Get list of measurement object names, get number of measurement objects in the list, find measurement objects in the collection by index or name

The collected data is stored in a data structure that is accessible via the MCDResults parent class and further derived classes. MCDResults in the context of this Standard means the acquisition of one sample (i.e. one line of the buffer). The acquired data may originate from multiple ECUs. An MCDResult object may contain multiple MCDResponse objects. MCDResponse in the context of this Standard means the data of one sample from one ECU. An MCDResponse object contains MCDResponseParameter objects. MCDResponseParameter objects in the context of this Standard are used to describe the data structure of the collected data. At the bottom of the data structure, MCDResponseParameter references to a value of the class MCDValue.

Class	Function
MCDResults	Get number of measurement samples, get measurement samples by index, get error
MCDResult	Get the responses available for this measurement sample, must be always exactly one response
MCDResponses	Get the response by index
MCDResponse	Get name and descriptions of the measurement sample, get their parameters
MCDResponseParameters	Get number and names of response parameters, find names in the response by index or name
MCDResponseParameter	Get name and descriptions of the parameter, get aggregated parameters, get data type, unit, valid number of decimal places, radix, value and value range information
MCDValue	Data type dependent get and set methods for measurement data values, get data type, get length of strings, get validity status and clear value

The Standard defines two representation types, in which the data is stored and transferred to the clients:

eRT_ECU: raw, internal implementation value, as stored in the ECU
eRT_PHYSICAL: physical, human-readable value, converted from the ECU value via a computation method

Data of the type eRT_PHYSICAL is always stored as a double-precision floating-point data type (A_FLOAT64). Data of the type eRT_ECU has the same data type as stored in the ECU. The Standard defines the following data types:

eA_BOOLEAN: boolean
eA_FLOAT32: floating-point 32-bit
eA_FLOAT64: floating-point 64-bit
eA_UINT8: unsigned integer 8-bit
eA_UINT16: unsigned integer 16-bit
eA_UINT32: unsigned integer 32-bit
eA_UINT64: unsigned integer 64-bit
eA_INT8: signed integer 8-bit
eA_INT16: signed integer 16-bit
eA_INT32: signed integer 32-bit
eA_INT64: signed integer 64-bit
eA_ASCIISTRING: ASCII string
eA_UNICODE2STRING: Unicode zero-terminated string according to ISO-10646 UCS-2

Recorder

Recorders acquire data the same way as Collectors, but make the data in a different way available to clients. In fact, the data acquisition of a Recorder is internally set up via a Collector object. However, instead of transferring the buffer content immediately to the client after the acquisition, the content is actually written to one or multiple files. The Recorder Application Programming InterfaceAPI then allows to transfer the data from the files asynchronously to clients while the Measurement is still running, or to transfer the data at a later time after the acquisition has finished. Since the logged data is available in files, it is also possible to transfer the data through other means than the ASAM MCD-3 Measurement and CalibrationMC Application Programming InterfaceAPI. Recorders are typically used, when the bandwidth between the Measurement and CalibrationMC-system and clients is not sufficient enough for synchronous data transfer.

ASAM MCD-3 Measurement and CalibrationMC defines two types of Recorders:

Write-Read Recorder via the class MCDWriteReadRecorder:
Acquires data, writes data to files, transfers data to client, is started and stopped by a Watcher.
Read-Only Recorder via the class MCDReadRecorder:
Transfers data to client.

Only the Write-Read Recorder is capable of carrying out a data acquisition. The Read-Only Recorder is used for transferring data captured by the Write-Read Recorder to clients at a later point-of-time, typically when the Measurement has finished.

The Write-Read Recorder acquires the data the same way as the Collector with two exceptions. The Write-Read Recorder has the additional eOS_PAUSED state, which can temporarily pause the data acquisition via the pause method, and restart data acquisition via the resume method. Furthermore, the Write-Read Recorder can acquire data from different logical links, unlike Collectors whose data must originate from one logical link.

The Standard does not stipulate specific file formats for storing the measured data. The Standard allows to optionally define the filename and -scheme, path and number of files to be used to store the measured data. A new file will be created during each transition from eOS_ACTIVATED to eOS_STARTED. Each transition from eOS_STARTED to eOS_ACTIVATED or eOS_CONFIGURED closes the current file. Files with the same name will be overwritten by the Measurement and CalibrationMC-server. Consequently, by using a suitable filename-scheme, the Write-Read Recorder can be set up to store data in a file-based ring-buffer scheme.

The Standard defines several classes for setting up and managing Recorders.

Class	Function
MCDRecorders	Get list of Recorder names, get number of Recorders in the list, create Recorders, find Recorders by index or name, get a list of available file formats, remove Recorders
MCDWriteReadRecorder	Get name and descriptions of Recorder, activate, change the configuration, check the configuration, start acquisition, stop acquisition, deactivate, write data to file, get start and stop delay times, get absolute time of first sample, get and set start and stop watcher objects, get current state, transfer results to client, get Collector objects for the Recorder, get file name and format, get errors, get lock state
MCDWriteReadRecorderCollectors	Get list of Collector names, get number of Collectors in the list, create Collectors, find Collectors by index or name, remove Collectors
MCDWriteReadRecorderCollector	Get name and descriptions of Collector, transfer results to client, get and set sample rate and down sampling factor, get logical link, get number of samples, get list of collected objects
MCDReadRecorder	Get name and descriptions of Recorder, get Collector objects for the Recorder, get absolute time of first sample, get file name and format, get representation type of the data
MCDReadRecorderCollectors	Get list of Collector names, get number of Collectors in the list, find Collectors by index or name
MCDReadRecorderCollector	Get name and descriptions of Collector, get Collector objects for the Recorder, transfer results to client, get number of samples
MCDReadCollectedObjects	Get list of names of collected objects, get number of objects in the list, find collected objects by index or name
MCDRateInfo	Get name and descriptions of sample rate objects, get the unit and scaling factor of one sample step, get the value of one sample step
MCDWriteReadRecorderEventHandler	Process Collector events on creation, configuration, activation, start pending, start, activate pending, lock, unlock, data logging results ready, modification of the data acquisition list and occurrence of an error

The acquired data is stored in files in the same structure as described for Collectors. Unlike in the case of Collectors, each sample must have a time stamp.

Watcher

Watchers allow to set up event-triggered data logging on the Measurement and CalibrationMC-server. A watcher is a server-sided object, which continuously monitors other objects, such as values from Measurement or Calibration objects, and triggers an event once a pre-defined condition is met. The event can be used to start and stop Collectors and Recorders, to pause Recorders, or may be used by other event handlers.

A watcher has exactly one trigger condition with up to two trigger source objects. The sources can be the value of a Measurement object, the value of a Calibration object (a cell value in case of an array), an event, the absolute or relative time. The trigger source objects have to be defined in the Measurement and CalibrationMC-server's Is an organized collection of data.Database and may be available on different logical links. A source can also be another trigger condition, which effectively allows to construct complex trigger conditions that involve more than two source objects. The trigger conditions are expressed with simple operators, such as bit operators, logical or relational operators, and edge-detection operators. Furthermore, a trigger condition may checks, whether a specific offset or gradient thresholds has been exceeded.

A watcher object has three internal states. In the eWS_CREATED state, the watcher can be configured, i.e. it is created or removed and the trigger condition can be set. In the eWS_INACTIVE state, the watcher is linked to Collectors, Recorders or other watcher objects. From this state, the watcher can be activated and would then transition into the state eWS_ACTIVE. While active, the watcher continuously monitors the source objects of the trigger condition. The watcher will trigger a "Fire" event, once the trigger condition evaluates to "true". The watcher then either remains in the state eWS_ACTIVE and continues to monitor the sources, or transitions back into the state eWS_INACTIVE depending on its AutoDeactivate configuration flag. Application Programming InterfaceAPI methods allow to manually move the watcher between the active and inactive state at any time. A watcher can also be activated by another watcher, which allows to set up watcher cascades.

The Standard defines watcher Application Programming InterfaceAPI classes to setup and manage the watchers as described in the following table.

Class	Function
MCDGlobalEventTriggerSource	Defines an event trigger source from a global object
MCDSystemEventTriggerSource	Defines an event trigger source from a system object
MCDLogicalLinkEventTriggerSource	Defines an event trigger source from a logical link object
MCDConstantValueTriggerSource	Defines a trigger source object, which always returns a constant value set during configuration of the watcher
MCDScalarValueTriggerSource	Defines a scalar trigger source object
MCDVectorValueTriggerSource	Defines a vector trigger source object
MCDMatrixValueTriggerSource	Defines a matrix trigger source object
MCDRelativeTimeValueTriggerSource	Defines a trigger source object, which returns the time since the activation of the watcher
MCDConstantTimeTriggerSource	Defines a trigger source object, which always returns a constant time set during configuration of the watcher
MCDAbsoluteTimeTriggerSource	Defines an absolute time trigger source object
MCDEmptyTrigger	Defines a trigger, which always evaluates to "false"

Triggers use operator classes to evaluate the trigger condition as per the next table.

Class	Function
MCDUnaryTrigger	Operator applied to one trigger source
MCDBinaryTrigger	Operator applied to two trigger sources
MCDGradientTrigger	Calculates the difference between the current value and the value from a specific time period in the past of the source object and evaluates to "true", if the difference exceeds a specified threshold
MCDOffsetTrigger	Calculates the difference between the current value of the source object and its value during activation of the watcher and evaluates to "true", if the difference exceeds a specified threshold
MCDEmptyTrigger	Operator always evaluates to "false"

Further Application Programming InterfaceAPI classes provide methods for the creation and administration of watchers.

Class	Function
MCDWatchers	Add, find and remove watchers from the system
MCDWatcher	Activate, deactivate, change the configuration, set up triggers, check the configuration and unconditionally fire a watcher, link to an activation watcher, set up event handlers, as well as getting various configuration and current state data
MCDTriggerFactory	Create trigger operators
MCDTriggerSourceFactory	Create trigger sources
MCDWatcherEventHandler	Returns "true", if a specific watcher was activated, created, deactivated, has fired, has errored-out or has been locked or unlocked

Database

The measureable variables and Calibration parameters of an ECU are described in ASAM MCD-2 MC LanguageA2L-files according to ASAM MCD-2 Measurement and CalibrationMC. Calibration tools read this file and internally store their content. The ASAM MCD-3 Measurement and CalibrationMC Application Programming InterfaceAPI provides programmatic read-only access for clients to this data. Those Application Programming InterfaceAPI classes all have the characters "Db" at the fourth and fifth position in the class name. The objects provide access to nearly the complete content of what is typically described in an ASAM MCD-2 MC LanguageA2L-file. The preceding chapters already described the access classes to measureable variables and Calibration parameters:

MCDDbMeasurement
MCDDbCharacteristic and its derived classes:
- MCDDbScalarCharacteristic
- MCDDbValueBlockCharacteristic
- MCDDbAsciiCharacteristic
- MCDDbCurveCharacteristic
- MCDDbMapCharacteristic
- MCDDbCube3DCharacteristic
- MCDDbCube4DCharacteristic
- MCDDbCube5DCharacteristic

Those classes contain the meta data about the name of the Measurement or Calibration object, descriptions, data type, display identifier, format and limits. Specifically for Measurement variables, the respective class further provides the default sample rate, accuracy, resolution and array size. For Calibration parameters, the respective class provides the address in memory, extended limits, max value change in one Calibration step, the read-only flag and further meta data specific to the Calibration parameter type.

Every Measurement and Calibration object has a reference to a computation method object MCDDbCompuMethod. This object describes, how a value is transformed from its internal representation type (eRT_ECU) to a physical representation type (eRT_PHYSICAL). The conversion is typically done through a linear or rational function, for which this class provides the coefficients. This object has further references to conversion tables (MCDDbCompuTab, MCDDbCompuVTab or MCDDbCompuVTabRange) and units (MCDDbUnit). The latter has a reference to the physical dimension (MCDDbPhysicalDimension). The last two classes allow to convert values of the same physical dimensions to different units.

Further classes are available to access other objects of the data base that describe general properties of the ECU SW architecture: MCDDbFunction, MCDDbGroup and MCDDbModPar.

Relation to Other Standards

ASAM MCD-3 Measurement and CalibrationMC and ASAM ASAP3 are not compatible to each other. The two standards just cover broadly the same application areas and use-cases.

ASAM MCD-3 Measurement and CalibrationMC uses ASAM MCD-2 Measurement and CalibrationMC. An Measurement and CalibrationMC-server according ASAM MCD-3 Measurement and CalibrationMC is able to parse and import data from ASAM MCD-2 MC LanguageA2L-files as specified by ASAM MCD-2 Measurement and CalibrationMC. This data is available via classes of the Measurement and CalibrationMC-server Application Programming InterfaceAPI.

Industry Adoption

From a technical point-of-view, ASAM MCD-3 Measurement and CalibrationMC is a modern Standard that covers a wide array of use-cases for Measurement and CalibrationMC-servers. Despite its sophistication, ASAM MCD-3 Measurement and CalibrationMC has never been more successful in the industry than its early predecessor ASAM ASAP3. The level of sophistication and the attempt to cover many use-cases resulted in a complex Application Programming InterfaceAPI, which is costly in implementation and complex in use. The forced integration of D-servers to the Standard throughout its development history contributed to the complex Application Programming InterfaceAPI. The D-server has been separated from the Standard meanwhile, but the complexity of the Application Programming InterfaceAPI remained essentially the same. Furthermore, the Standard favors an implementation via DCOM, whose configuration and administration is considerably more complex compared to ASAP3-based systems. Since ASAP3 covers the most important use-cases, is easier to use and is very stable in operation, there is rarely justification to switch to ASAM MCD-3 Measurement and CalibrationMC. Although version 3.0 of the Standard was released in 2011, most tool vendors still use version 2.2 implementation in their tools today.

List of Deliverables

The Standard includes the following deliverables:

Programmer's Guide
COM-IDL Technology Reference Mapping Rules
IDL file
API Reference
UML Model