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Comfort evaluation on a dynamic driving simulator with advanced tire, road and vehicle models
(2024)
The topics of automated driving and digitization are becoming increasingly im-portant and will shape the future of mobility. The potential of this technology is enormous. Concurrently, manufacturers want to continue to differentiate them-selves in driving characteristics typical of their brands. Rapid developments re-garding technological changes as well as legal regulations combined with short development times present new challenges for the entire automotive industry. In this context, virtualization and front-loading methods play a major role within the vehicle development. There has been a clear trend of pushing virtual devel-opment via simulation to reduce the number of necessary prototypes. Since however, both engineers and management still rely heavily on the crucial in-sights gained by real road tests, subjective closed-loop assessment must remain a part of this virtual process. Driving simulators have the potential to bridge these gaps, allowing engineers and test drivers to subjectively experience and assess new systems in an early virtual phase of development.
Kempten University of Applied Sciences is working with research and technol-ogy partners to research and further develop their dynamic driving simulator. With the goal to develop use-case specific methods for virtual vehicle develop-ment, the simulator’s novel motion platform is used specifically for research projects in areas requiring high dynamic performance such as vehicle dynamics and ride. This paper describes the methods and solutions developed in an R&D project investigating the simulator’s capabilities for ride comfort evaluation, such as primary & secondary ride. With the goal to enable experienced test drivers to perform a subjective ride evaluation in a very early development phase, the simulator’s real-time environment was extended with the highly so-phisticated tire model FTire. This paper provides an overview of the system’s performance regarding subjective ride assessment. It presents a brief insight into the detailed road modelling and describes the measures taken to ensure real-time capability of the individual model interfaces. Objective performance evaluation shows the benefit of this work for comfort evaluation in early phases of virtual development.
The disruptive change of the future vehicle fleet, new technologies and short development times challenge the entire automotive industry. Every test drive and every test kilometer is cost-intensive and, on top of that, in some cases hardly feasible for safety reasons. The goal is crystal clear: to shift development more and more to simulation and reduce the number of prototypes. However, the real driving experience in a road test still offers essential insights for engineers and management. Driving simulators have the potential to bridge these gaps. They can create the possibility for engineers and test subjects to experience the subjective driving impressions of new functions, systems and driving attributes already in the virtual phase. In order to achieve a comparable driving experience on a driving simulator and thus a comparable evaluation result with the driving test, the methods as well the driving simulator environment must be aligned with the targeted applications and use cases. Kempten University of Applied Sciences has set up a novel dynamic driving simulator from AB Dynamics (ABD). Together with research and technology partners, technologies and methods are being further developed on this basis in order to achieve the above-mentioned goal. The paper presents potential, methods as well as use cases relevant for chassis development. The paper also gives a first-hand account of the experience.
Recently the trend of driving simulators with driver in the loop (DiL) integration in the development process has become more and more visible. BMW opened a completely new simulation center, Daimler and Toyota have already had theirs in operation for some years. The reasons are well known and are presented in conferences and written down in papers: Reducing development time, reducing prototypes, reducing costs and increasing overall performance and efficiency. The same benefits are promised in papers about pure simulation, but what is the actual benefit from a dynamic driving simulator? The investment and operating costs are very high and yet it is crucial to bring the driver in to the loop. Obviously, the maturity level or knowledge about pure simulation and understanding for human drivers are still insufficient for a major breakthrough of simulation in many fields of application. A driving simulator connects the real and virtual world, by which humans experience functions and characteristics subjectively. Crucial decisions are made on reliable subjective feedback and humans especially become part of the left arm of the V-model development process. The current approach is using the same models and simulation environments combined with a driving simulator transferring simple signals from visible into feelable. The disadvantage of closing open control loops with a driver is that the objective data and maneuver quality largely depends on the driver. Assuming the driver is well qualified, the interface must reflect the real driving experience. Otherwise, every system/component under test will be assessed with an offset, filter or error. Besides the visualization, the steering feel is the most important channel for the driver to properly control any lateral movement. The common approach is using a force feedback system. A look on a steering system illustrates the complexity to ensure good steering feel.