Continuous investments in R&D is at the heart of every innovative company. While many innovations are built on existing ideas, a successful implementation depends on a thorough evaluation and measurement of their potential benefits and limitations. This was the challenge facing a world-renowned Fortune 500 company that operates in power, electrical equipment, and automation technology areas. With the evolution of promising automotive communication protocols, such as AUTOSAR, the company wanted to explore the potential opportunities they posed in specific industrial areas.
The company was looking to understand how automotive communications protocols could be applied to building, factory, and process automation areas and the feasibility of doing so through a comprehensive IP research study. Doing this required a thorough review of the scientific and patent information related to the technologies and the domains of interest and an understanding of the difficulties involved in implementing them.
Business Challenge
A global power and automation technology giant wanted to carry out a deep-dive analysis of the AUTomotive Open System ARchitecture (AUTOSAR) to explore the possible use of the AUTOSAR communication protocols in industrial applications, such as building, factory, and process automation and evaluate if these protocols befit the requirements of the mentioned industries.
Solution
Netscribes conducted an in-depth study of specific communication protocol requirements in building, factory and process automation domains and developed an appropriate research methodology to meet the client’s requirement. The methodology encapsulated a combination of technology analysis, competitive analysis, and business research.
1. Technology analysis
Netscribes prepared a matrix of automation specifications against communication requirements.
In light of the communication requirements, Netscribes understood the complete AUTOSAR architecture and developed a possibility matrix on the basis of the identified automotive communication protocols. We carried out a comprehensive review of relevant secondary and patent literature that involved the analysis of:
- Emerging technologies
- Technology roadmap of the top patent assignees
- Technological innovation
- Latest trends
- Preferred technology models
2. Competitive analysis and business research
This phase involved a detailed assessment of AUTOSAR-related products, both current and upcoming, by rival companies and the technologies/platforms used in their development.
By analyzing secondary sources of information, such as patents, press releases, and research journals, we determined the demand for and the developments in communication protocols and applications that use AUTOSAR, commercial viability, and scalable standards/ protocols.
Their compatibility with adjacent sectors such as building, factory, and process automation was assessed based on a need analysis and a corresponding communication protocol applicability matrix (automotive against building, process and factory automation).
Results delivered
Netscribes delivered a detailed report on the feasibility of implementing AUTOSAR in industrial
applications, which explained:
- The relevant protocols, functionalities and possible applications
- The software aspects used in the key communication protocols
- Performance parameters such as the response times involved when a specific communication protocol is initiated in vehicular communication.
- The feasibility of implementing possible communication protocols in domains other than automotive
Read more: Technology assessment for an automotive systems manufacturing firm
Outcome
The study helped identify the most relevant AUTOSAR communication protocols and enabled our client to assess the feasibility of implementing AUTOSAR in specific business areas.
