ASAM OTX Extensions

ASAM OTX in conjunction with ISO 13209 (OTX) can be used in any application area where the definition of test procedures for documentation purposes or in an automation system is required. Typical application areas in the automotive industry are in ECU diagnostics testing, ECU calibration and EOL-testing.

In 2012, ISO published the new standard ISO 13209 "Open Test Sequence Exchange" (OTX), part 1 to 3, which has the main purpose to define a language and exchange format for the specification of executable test sequences. OTX has originally been developed for the area of ECU diagnostics testing, but is not limited to this area. Soon after the first OTX-based systems appeared on the market, end users required additional functionality, which were promptly implemented by tool suppliers. Some of the requested functionality, such as file processing or specific complex data types, impeded the exchangeability of OTX files and the interoperability of test systems. Consequently, there was a need to further standardize the additional functionality.

ASAM OTX fills those functional gaps of ISO 13209. Overall, 22 extensions are defined in ASAM OTX, which include:

• Definition of new data types, such as enumeration, structure and a type of undefined content (similar to the C-type "void")
• Change monitoring and triggering of events when items in a List or Map of any depth has been changed
• General read and write access to files, such as opening a file, reading and writing individual bytes or lines, closing a file or deleting a file
• General processing of XML files, such as reading and writing an XML file, navigating through the XML structure, adding, changing or deleting elements and attributes
• Load and save of persistent runtime data
• Access to an SQL database
• Further extending the ISO-extensions DiagCom, DiagDataBrowsing, Event and Flash
• Bus monitoring
• Interface to DoIP
• Common dialogs
• Assertions
• ZIP-file handling

The standard is proposed for transfer to ISO 13209 as part 4 of the standard.

Furthermore, ASAM OTX contains a document that clarifies specification gaps, limitations and some known errors of ISO 13209. The ASAM OTX extensions and clarifications are schema-compliant to ISO 13209.

Standard Authors

AVL LIST GmbH, Audi AG, Cognitran Ltd., Daimler AG, DSA-Daten- und Systemtechnik GmbH, emotive GmbH & Co. KG, KPIT Infosystems GmbH, M&K Mess- und Kommunikationstechnik GmbH, Porsche AG, RA Consulting GmbH, Robert Bosch GmbH, Siemens AG, Softing Automotive Electronics GmbH, Volkswagen AG.