Florian Bürger wrote his bachelor thesis on an approach to controlling a test and diagnostic system using an iPhone for applications in automotive engineering.
(German title: “Ansatz zur Steuerung eines Prüf- und Diagnosesystems auf Basis des iPhone zum Einsatz in der Fahrzeugtechnik”).
The thesis was supervised by Oliver Kraus (CEO of Areus Engineering) and me.
Here is an abstract of his thesis.

 

This bachelor thesis describes the development process for a prototypical iPhone applications used to control a test system for electronic control units (ECU) engineered by Areus Engineering GmbH. Based on the groundwork done in this prototype, engineers will be able to view diagnostic reports on their iPhone or iPad and to initiate test scenarios for their systems. This document shows the necessary steps to create certified hardware components and how communication between iOS applications and those components can be achieved.
The developed application provides a generic communication module to interact with any external accessories to support different hardware in future projects.

Keywords: iPhone, electronic control unit (ECU), Made for iPod, iOS, test and diagnostic system”

Ansatz zur Steuerung eines Prüf- und Diagnosesystems auf Basis des iPhones zum Einsatz in der Fahrzeugtechnik
Written by Florian Bürger, October 2010 at Areus Engineering GmbH
Second supervisor: Dipl.-Ing. Oliver Kraus.