28 | AutoPartsAsia | OCTOBER 2017
obsolescence as it allows to reuse
most of the designs that were
already developed.“Suppose you
develop a sub-system using a certain
combination of mechanical, electrical,
hydraulic and software, it will be there
in the Simulink environment. You can
use this across different platforms.
But it is not static. Every year you can
make modifications to the same model
and enhance that. That way you are
not doing a design and then archiving
that and after a few years you realise
that it has become obsolete. Instead,
you are continuously enhancing
functions in the virtual environment.
Then cater to better requirements in
future,” he said.
Software Control
Now, everything in a vehicle is
controlled by software. Take the
example of lighting, it is very complex
today. The lighting technology has
evolved quite a bit. MathWorks plays
a big role in providing electronically-
controlled lighting configurations.
Companies like Hella are using its
tools. “You can use MathWorks tools
to develop all the electronically-
controlled systems. Whether it is air-
conditioning, lighting, wiper control-all
these are electronically- controlled
today. In the wiper system, when rain
falls on the wiper it starts working.
You don’t need to activate the wiper
in high-end cars. In short you can
electronically control a lot
of mechanical components. This
will help you to stay ahead of
competition,” Rao said.
“Safety, autonomous or automated
driving system, hybrid and electronic
powertrain-based system, and fuel
economy and emission control are
the four important driving forces in
the automotive industry now. In all
these areas electronics and software
play a big part in enabling vehicles
to meet the expectations of the
customer.Electronics, software and
advanced control systems help the
vehicle manufacturers provide the
functionalities according to the needs
of the customer. MathWorks tools are
the popular choice to develop these
features. Wherever there is the use of
electronics and software, we play a
very big role,” Rao said.MathWorks tools are in a very open
environment. MATLAB can support
all kinds of sensors and data that
are brought into its environment
to analyse. In a car, you have data
coming from ECUs through telematics
and MATLAB can take all of them.
There are many standard exchange
platforms. Data can be exchanged
within different systems. As Simulink
is so open, people are using it for
complete vehicle model.Cyber Security
The increased use of software raises
the issue of cyber security. “We
comply to a lot of cyber security
standards for the embedded software
that is automatically generated fromthe simulation environment. We
continue to invest in this new area to
provide more and more capabilities.
If a customer generates embedded
code from our system we are able
to provide them very high level
of security on that automatically
generated code. We are quite high in
industry standards with Autosar and
ISO 26262,” Rao said.
MathWorks India has a very strong
customer base in the country. It has
over 600 commercial customers,
over 1200 academic customers and
employs 400 people.
Automotive is the biggest industry
segment for the company. It is
headquartered in Bangalore and
has branch offices in Pune, Delhi
and Hyderabad. The company has
presence in Kolkata as well.“In MathWorks India we have a sales
team which focuses on the domestic
business and supports our customers.
We also have a development centre
in Bangalore that works along with
our worldwide development centres.
As much as 85 per cent of our total
revenue comes from commercial
operations and only 15 per cent is
from the academia. Significant parts
of our core products were developed
in India. Whatever is developed here
goes into our global product portfolio.
In india, roughly 200 people are in the
product development area. Our head
count doubled in one year. We are a
fast growing company and expect the
momentum to continue,” Rao said.