Master's thesis project, 30 credits - Visualizing a Complete Vehicle Interface Roadmap

Master's thesis project, 30 credits

– Visualizing a Complete Vehicle Interface Roadmap

Background:

Road transports face increasing societal challenges with respect to emissions, safety, traffic congestion, etc. Vehicle automation, connectivity and electrification may be utilized to address some of these issues. However, a drawback is that these new technologies significantly increase technical complexity within the vehicles and thus introduce new challenges in the product development phase.

Product architecting, a key sub-process within Systems Engineering, is today identified as an important component to cope with the increasing complexity. Especially in products containing an increased amount of electronics and software, like electrified and self-driving vehicles.

The iterative process when designing a product architecture includes conceptual system design, module identification and product layout design. During the layout design stage, the module candidates are placed within the spatial boundaries (interfaces) of the product. An open question is how the interfaces of these complex vehicles should be modeled to efficiently capture the present state, as well as upcoming and planned changes over time. Thus, an Interface Roadmap needs to contain distinct milestones that highlight key developments and innovations, shaping the future of complete vehicle interfaces.

We are now looking for two Master´s thesis students that will focus on investigating and visualizing a Complete Vehicle Interface Roadmap.

Aim:

The overall aim of this Master´s thesis project is to identify and propose a suitable Complete Vehicle Interface Roadmap to facilitate efficient cross-functional collaboration and synchronization on architecture-related tasks. We expect you to perform interviews with key stakeholders, make a case study to represent one or several complete vehicle interfaces, including how these interfaces are planned to change over time, by using the proposed Interface Roadmap. Finally, the efficiency of the proposed roadmap needs to be evaluated by using suitable evaluation criteria’s.

Assignment:

The first task is to perform a literature review within the area of product architecting in order to define the state-of-the-art. The second task is to perform interviews with key stakeholders to define the various needs throughout the organization. The third task is to scrutinize and model one or several complete vehicle interfaces, including how these are planned to change over time, in a case study. The Interface Roadmap should highlight the main upcoming changes of the chosen interfaces. Finally, the last task is to evaluate the efficiency of the proposed Interface Roadmap by using suitable evaluation criteria’s.

The project results are needed to get a better understanding of the state-of-the-art, get an improved understanding of the present and future product architecture state at TRATON, and to further improve the cross-functional communication.

A multidisciplinary approach is needed in the investigation, therefore, a great understanding of Systems Engineering, mechanical and electrical systems, including embedded software, is required. In addition, the work requires a large amount of cross-functional synchronization and collaboration with key stakeholders. Therefore, excellent communication skills are essential.

Education:
M.Sc. in Engineering Design/Mechanical Engineering/Mechatronics, or similar. 

Start date: January 2025.
Estimated time needed: 20 weeks.

Number of students: 2.

Contact person and supervisor:
David Williamsson, PhD.

Vehicle Architecture, EMTLA. david.williamsson@scania.com

Application:
Enclose CV, personal letter and transcripts of academic results.

https://www.scania.com/group/en/home/career/available-positions

A background check might be conducted for this position. We are conducting interviews continuously and may close the recruitment earlier than the date specified.

Thesis worker Product Architecting