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Stability, handling and comfort studies

The virtual test drive enables you to reproducibly test the driving behavior in all relevant driving situations; security relevant tests can be performed cost efficiently up to the limits of stability without risk to life or vehicle. Due to the very good correspondence of simulation and reality important testing tasks can be shifted from the test track to the laboratory.

Function development of control systems for chassis, engine and power train

The function development of control systems is supported by a detailed virtual vehicle environment. The models of this vehicle environment map the vehicle with all sub-components like the steering system, tires, braking system, drive train and aerodynamics and are fully integrated into Simulink. This flexible model environment is completed by three-dimensional road models and a robust fully parameterized driver model (IPGDriver) allowing the test of developed functions under realistic conditions.

Development and test of driver assistance systems

The development of driver assistance systems like ACC or lane change assistant requires test environments that simulate not only the vehicle but also the traffic around the vehicle. CarMaker enables developers to build arbitrary traffic situations with vehicles. Both forward looking vehicle positioning and stationary obstacles may be incorporated within the virtual vehicle environment of CarMaker. The vehicle dynamics simulation allows you to analyze how driving the sensor equipped vehicle influences the detection of the objects.

Software- and hardware-in-the-loop tests of ECUs

The controller code or the real ECU is integrated into the vehicle model of CarMaker and is tested in virtual driving tests. The good correspondence between simulation and reality allows you to make a reliable software release. To cover the networking of the controllers in the vehicle ,OEMs perform integration tests of the controller cluster at the HIL system.

Fail-safe testing

The simulation of electrical faults on the HIL test bench is an important part of the product development to test the diagnostic functions of the ECUs and the vehicle behavior in the case of fault signals. The FailSafeTester allows for a software controlled simulation of different types of faults, like e.g. cable breakage, loose contacts, increased resistance through corrosion, short circuits or shunts.

Component tests on the system test bed

On the system test bed real vehicle components like active steering systems, anti-roll bars or tires are installed and connected to the virtual vehicle environment of CarMaker. All other vehicle and system components are simulated. The real components get the forces and moments from appropriate actuators controlled by CarMaker and can thereby be tested in reproducible test cycles.

Route and maneuver based testing of hybrid vehicles

IPG has developed a test system together with the test bench specialist AVL which enables you to test the dynamic behavior of combustion engines and hybrid systems by performing virtual driving maneuvers at the test stand. This allows for a holistic inspection of consumption, performance and vehicle dynamics to harmonize all vehicle systems and the associated ECUs with the overall vehicle behavior.

Combustion and emission optimization

To decrease effectively the energy consumption of vehicles in an isolated examination of engine and drive train is insufficient. The drive has to be analyzed and optimized in interaction with all other functional groups. The openness of CarMaker's model platform allows you to integrate the detailed engine and drive train models from Sherpa Engineering and AVL in the vehicle dynamics simulation. The virtual driving tests offer much more for the assessment of energy efficiency than common driving cycles.