Vehicle driving simulator offers a cost-effective, turnkey solution

Vehicle development programmes no longer have to wait for a physical prototype before human test drivers can contribute to the engineering process. With this solution, test drivers can fully engage with the design, test and validation phases while the engineering is still model-based.

“The availability of a turnkey driving simulator solution with cutting-edge dynamic performance from a leading global supplier is a game-changer for vehicle development,” said Chris Hoyle, Technical Director, rFpro. “It offers customers a low risk system fully compatible with existing vehicle modelling tools, such as Dymola, SIMPACK, CarMaker and CarSim and extends the reach of real time ‘driver-in-the-loop’ simulators into key areas of active safety, vehicle dynamics and autonomous testing.”

One option available with the MTS VDS is mechanical Hardware-In-the-Loop (mHIL), which runs physical systems alongside virtual models in real time. This allows a human driver to evaluate the feel of a steering system, or the ride and handling behaviour of different dampers, long before a prototype vehicle exists. Used in combination with the library of worldwide road surface models in rFpro’s Terrain Server tool, the effect of every bump, ripple and surface change at the contact patch of each individual tyre can be experienced.

According to MTS, the unprecedented speed of rFpro’s audio and visual cueing is a key contributor to overall system performance. “In order to bring to market the next generation of dynamic platform performance, we required software that was equally capable,” said Professor Mark Gillan, Director, MTS Motorsports Technology Group. “With rFpro, we found a proven solution with low latency, high bandwidth and exceptionally HD graphics, essential for closing the loop through the driver quickly and providing the necessary realism.”

The importance of closing the loop quickly is underlined by some typical figures; the human ear can detect latency of as little as 7ms and the eyes 20-25ms. Traditional large-scale driving simulators typically introduce latency of between 100 and 250ms. The combination of stiff, lightweight, all-electric platform hardware and rFpro software delivers the virtual testing experience faster than the threshold at which humans can perceive latency for the audio, visual, haptic and vestibular cues.

By working with rFpro MTS' VDS customers benefit from out-of-the-box integration with their existing vehicle models and a large library of off-the-shelf digital road models and proving grounds.