Modern products are no longer defined by hardware alone. Software increasingly determines functionality, performance, safety, and user experience across automotive, aerospace, maritime, and industrial applications. As systems become more connected, distributed, and interdependent, issues often emerge during integration, where they are significantly more costly and time-consuming to resolve.
AVL HiL Nexus™ provides a unified, scalable, and future-proof hardware-in-the-loop (HiL) platform, enabling efficient virtual testing from component level to complete system validation.
Hardware-in-the-Loop (HiL) testing helps engineering teams identify issues when they are easier and less costly to address. By replacing physical dependencies with simulation-based testing, it enables continuous verification throughout development and provides early insight into system behavior under a wide range of operating conditions.
HiL testing helps organizations:
- Detect integration issues before physical systems are available
- Validate software continuously throughout development
- Reduce dependency on prototypes and test vehicles
- Verify system behavior under realistic operating conditions
- Improve product quality while shortening development cycles
Whether developing vehicles, aircraft, vessels, or industrial equipment, HiL testing provides a proven framework for validating complex systems with confidence.
Specifications
Thanks to the universal I/O board, which supports a wide range of signal types (such as digital and analog inputs and outputs), the system offers maximum flexibility while reducing overall complexity. This enables a scalable architecture that can be easily adapted to different applications and future requirements.
Preconfigured system variants as well as specialized hardware modules are available for domain-specific applications and the integration of external components – providing an ideal starting point that can be flexibly tailored to individual project needs:
- Standard
- eDrive
- Battery
- Customized
In addition, AVL software solutions enhance the platform with powerful capabilities for real-time simulation, calibration, and validation – from individual components to full vehicle testing.
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One Platform for Multi-Domain Validation
Validate systems across domains and development stages through a unified HiL environment with flexible simulation and test capabilities
Reduce Investment While Maximizing Utilization
Lower hardware costs through a scalable I/O architecture, shared resources, and long-term reuse across projects.
Increase Team Productivity Across Locations
Enable parallel testing through simultaneous multi-user access, remote operation, and centralized resource management.
Enable Earlier Validation and Faster Feedback
Start testing sooner through rapid deployment and scalable configurations that adapt as requirements evolve.
Built for Openness and Flexibility
Integrate existing tools, test frameworks, and CI/CD pipelines through an open, vendor-agnostic architecture.
Orchestrate End-to-End System Validation Across Domains and ECU
Nexus enables system-level validation by connecting physical and virtual controllers, real-time plant models, and communication networks within a single environment. Engineers can verify interactions across embedded systems under realistic conditions without requiring the complete physical system.
The platform combines real-time simulation, deterministic signal processing, network integration, fault injection, and closed-loop testing to uncover integration issues early. Advanced scenarios, including Restbus simulation and full network behavior, support continuous validation throughout development.
Deliver Deterministic Real-Time Simulation with Modular I/O Flexibility
AVL's solution features a software-configurable I/O architecture that replaces dedicated hardware boards with flexible I/O modules supporting analog, digital, PWM, and other interfaces. Multiple functions can be combined within a single card and mixed freely within one platform.
This approach reduces hardware complexity, simplifies system configuration, and enables efficient reuse across applications. Specialized capabilities, including FPGA-based solutions and interfaces such as cell voltage emulation, extend the platform for demanding validation requirements while protecting existing investments.
Transform HiL into a Shared, Scalable Validation Infrastructure
Nexus decouples users from physical systems and introduces a resource-oriented validation model, where multiple engineers and teams can access and operate shared HiL environments simultaneously. Distributed execution, remote access, and centralized configuration enable parallel testing across locations while ensuring consistent and reproducible results. This approach maximizes hardware utilization, reduces redundancy, and allows validation capacity to scale with project demands rather than requiring additional physical systems.
With our HiL Solutions we target end-to-end approaches that radically speed up software release cycles and E/E integration, offering a new benchmark for testing efficiency and development agility.
– Halil Ziya Ahmed, Product Manager
Automotive validation often spans multiple environments – Software-in-the-Loop, Hardware-in-the-Loop, and real-vehicle testing – but moving tests, models, and data between them is rarely straightforward.