Chara Technologies’ development team, based in Bangalore, India, is focused on the development of Rare-Earth free and affordable motors. The emergence of electric and hybrid vehicles in recent years has led to heightened interest in Chara’s Synchronous Reluctance Motors (SynRM). These can typically develop higher continuous torque levels than similarly sized induction motors.
The development work for Chara’s SynRM range includes proprietary motor control algorithms, communication stacks, application layer software and a cloud-based analytics platform handling motor data.
“To address the challenges posed by the obligation to adhere to these standards
and guidelines, Chara Technologies settled on the LDRA tool suite.”
Omkar Lad, Head of Firmware & Software at Chara Technologies, takes up the story. “We are currently in the process of developing products catering to the global markets for 2, 3, and 4-wheeled vehicles. A majority of 4-wheeler Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) have mandated compliance with ISO 26262 and ASPICE standards, and the others are progressively adopting them. Some off-road and agricultural applications require us to align with ISO 25119. All these process standards necessitate the structured
development of software.”
To address the challenges posed by the obligation to adhere to these standards and guidelines, Chara
Technologies settled on the LDRA tool suite. They were impressed not only by its integrated static and
dynamic capabilities, but less obviously by its intuitive, easy-to-use interface.
The LDRA tool suite has yielded significant commercial advantage for the company. “Since using the LDRA
tool suite, we have saved the equivalent of a developer’s time on code review.” said Omkar. “By replacing the open-source unit test framework we relied on previously, we have gained reporting on code coverage, test results, and control & data flow, all of which are needed for certification. The tool suite makes the certification process much smoother.”
Using the LDRA tool suite has resulted in other, less obvious benefits for the development team. In particular, Omkar noted that they have adopted complexity and other code quality metrics since using the tool, and that their code quality in general has improved significantly – perhaps with the benefit of reduced support overheads in the future.
Chara Technologies are so pleased with the LDRA tool suite that they apply it even where standards are
less demanding. “Outside the automotive sector, many of our projects need not comply with such stringent
functional safety requirements. Even so, the LDRA tool suite allows us to apply the same rigorous verification
and validation processes, ensuring higher reliability and quality for industrial and HVAC customers.”
“We confidently predict a return-on-investment period for the LDRA tool suite of no more than 18 months”
Omkar concluded. “Even the accountants are happy.”
“Since using the LDRA tool suite, we have saved the
equivalent of a developer’s time on code review”
Email: info@ldra.com
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