Demands for accelerated product development and the pressure to “design it right the first time” are driving manufacturers to reduce prototypes, enhance engineering connections and share data to a wider audience with greater veracity, volume, and velocity. Simulators have become an integral part of the integrated design process.
There are two areas where simulators can be found: Vehicle Dynamics and NVH with both increasing and optimizing “driver in the loop” test processes to deliver invaluable design insight.
While using simulators is well established within the vehicle dynamics domain, “driver in motion” simulators have become extremely effective and integral in delivering simulated experience based on authenticated context to other areas of engineering like NVH. With these enhanced simulation capabilities, we are now able to reproduce endless virtual scenarios that had been previously unattainable.
Engineers are now able to simultaneously:
- Connect your vehicle dynamics model with the ADAS, Lidar and other AV technology to test performance;
- Provide acoustic playback that is real and represents the sound design strategy that reflects the vehicle brand identity;
- Evaluate your tire model for road noise contribution and structural noise path optimization.
Additionally, to the above features, technology will also deliver results across a range of vehicle configurations, differing speeds (or accelerations), and through a full spectrum of free driving maneuvers.
Simulators empower engineers to create powerful and qualified ecospheres that result in both accelerated vehicle design and improved end-user experiences.
These new insights and capabilities combine to analyze, and resolve, multiple challenges that engineers haven’t previously considered or issues that lay outside of the initial design brief. Simulators offer the ability for engineers to virtually create and understand endless environmental challenges and design scenarios.
“Driver in the loop” simulations are critical for success as virtual testing despite being as advanced and thorough as it currently is, will never fully be able to reflect or account for the subtleties found within the human ear and emotional response. “Driver-in-the-loop” simulators can either challenge a driver with a unique scenario or challenge a jury of drivers with identical scenarios so teams can build preference equations based on driver feedback and increased statistical model confidence.
