As real as virtually possible

摘要

Test drivers at Volvo Cars and Hyundai Commercial Vehicles no longer need wait for prototypes to be built before they sit behind the wheel. Both companies are now using advanced simulation technology linked to their computer aided engineering (CAE) software and populated with mathematical models and parametric data that characterise such qualities as suspension stiffness, braking force, roll-rate and oversteer in order to get a real feel for the way the vehicles drive. Simulators have in the past been too slow to handle all of the data generated in a dynamic driving environment and have been largely used so far for human factor studies and cabin ergonomics. For Hyundai, Spanish vehicle development and test organisation Applus IDIADA, has built a bespoke commercial vehicle simulator using the CarSim modelling environment and software from rFpro. This was achieved by closing the feedback loop as quickly as possible on all the data generated, as rFpro's Chris Hoyle explains: "The software provides very high bandwidth video and audio feeds to the driver at the same time as high bandwidth road surface detail to the model."