Adaptive low-power Electronic Control Unit operation through priority-based interrupt-driven Controller Area Network mechanism

The increasing number of Electronic Control Units (ECUs) in modern vehicles contributes to auxiliary electrical power demand, particularly when non-critical controllers remain active during periods of limited communication. This work proposes a priority-based adaptive ECU power-management framework using Controller Area Network (CAN) communica-tion, ECU functional criticality, interrupt-driven state transitions, and inactivity monitoring. ECUs are classified into high-critical, moderately critical, and low-critical categories to determine their eligibility for active, idle, and controlled sleep operation. The framework additionally considers communication throttling and reduced workload operation for eligible non-critical functions while excluding safety–critical ECUs from inactivity-triggered sleep control. A time-dependent energy model is formulated to account for ECU activity, sleep duration, workload, wake-up events, and transition energy. The framework is evaluated using a representative four-node analytical case study. Under the selected power and operating assumptions, the case study yields an estimated 26.5% reduction in auxiliary ECU power consumption. This value represents an analytical proof-of-concept rather than experimentally validated automotive performance. Future work will focus on large-scale CAN simulation, Hardware-in-the-Loop validation, and automotive-grade hardware implementation.