Taking you to the next level - Open House 2012
Impressions of the Open House 2012
Open House on March 6th, 2012 in Karlsruhe/Durlach:
”CarMaker 4.0 – the next step in virtual test driving“
More than 160 visitors attended our Open House on March 6, 2012 to obtain first-hand information on virtual test driving. The event was centered on the clearly extended CarMaker 4.0 open integration and testplatform featuring numerous new options. Based on various applications visitors experienced ways in which efficiency in seamless vehicle development can be enhanced beyond previous levels.
CarMaker 4.0 highlights include the following topics:
- Predictive energy management
- Sensor data fusion in driver assistance systems
- Truck and off-highway applications
- Hardware-in-the-loop technologies
- Simulation-based homologation
- Variant validation and test automation
The spectrum of topics and the composition of attendees, which included experts from all fields of vehicle development, reflected CarMaker’s wide range of uses in our customers’ development processes. It provided further proof of IPG’s open and standardized interface management opening up the possibility to merge various domains. Innovations are thus turned into tangible experiences in the full virtual vehicle at an early stage to validate investments in new developments and to shorten time to market.
Our overall assessment of the Open House is highly positive, not least due to the fact that the number of attendees had increased yet again. The high response demonstrates the growing significance of virtual test driving in seamless vehicle development. In addition, our Open House, which we are planning to make an annual event, provides us with an important platform to gain additional information about current requirements and topics in a direct dialog with our customers.
Please contact us directly if you are interested in the Open House presentations.
In the field of predictive energy management interdisciplinary collaboration is highly important. Today, consumption and emissions as well as the range of new drive concepts have to be optimized for different target regions early on in development. CarMaker 4.0 makes it possible to subject a full virtual vehicle including networked controller functions to worldwide test driving with different types of drivers. This allows comprehensive testing of intelligent energy management concepts, e.g. for Green ACC, new shifting concepts, battery charging strategies, component and thermal management as well as for prediction assistants, in virtual test driving.
Users who develop camera-based assistance systems benefit from CarMaker 4.0’s extensions as well. These features merge the environment-related data from cameras, radar, lidar, ultrasonic and GPS through sensor data fusion using various data sources. CarMaker 4.0 allows the sensors and fusion algorithms to be validated in realistic, often complex traffic scenarios in a repeatable, synchronous (same time/same place) closed-loop process. Freely configurable multiple cameras are another new feature. Their optical properties through to 250° fish eye are defined by models and simulated in a fully synchronous manner in real time. The fusion of stereo cameras or 360° park view systems is reliably validated this way.
TruckMaker has been enhanced by numerous model extensions for off-highway applications to allow virtual off-road test driving of construction vehicles, farm tractors and forklift trucks, for example. Specialty extensions on the vehicle model include the elastically mounted cabin and bogie axles. The road model, IPGRoad, has been enhanced as well, now allowing users to realistically model a wide range of off-road conditions. In addition to the ground, loading conditions, tires, additional weights, add-on components and trailer models can be varied in a fast and easy manner. This creates the prerequisites for covering a wide range of challenging customer use cases.
A lot has happened in the hardware-in-the-loop sector as well. The first successful simulation-based homologation for electronic stability systems of truck trailers together with Haldex was achieved as early as in 2010. Now, two renowned automobile manufacturers have been awarded certification of their ESP systems for passenger cars based on HIL tests. In addition, new HIL solutions for steering-in-the-loop, advanced front-lighting systems, four-wheel drive systems, tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS) and parking assistants were presented at the event. Visitors also showed keen interest in the compact RoadBox for onboard vehicle use which allows test driving of a real-world vehicle through virtual traffic.
