TEST & MEASUREMENT | SIMULATION
pedals, gear stick and screen, along
with the ability to be placed directly
in an office, it is giving OEMs, Tier
1s, research institutes and industry
bodies a more immersive and carlike
environment, whilst making the
practical operation much easier.
Portable, compact simulation
technology is a direct response
to its creators’ interactions with
the various segments across the
automotive industry, which are seeking
dependable, rapid, and powerful
validation tools. Acknowledging this
steep rise in vehicle technological
development and validation,
Reportlinker analysts predict
that the driving simulator
market will reach $2.4 billion
by 2025.
Ansible Motion, a
compact, portable
sim does is allow easy
inclusion of the human
experience into what would
otherwise be an ordinary
simulation, and this turns
out to be a critical part
provider of driving
simulator solutions for
vehicle constructors
and suppliers around the
world, began production of
Theta C, a compact, portable,
self-contained cube simulator
after favourable responses were
received from its initial exhibit at the
JSAE 2019 Congress in Yokohama,
Japan, in May 2019. According to
Ansible Motion, each element of its
Theta C product line is scalable in
terms of both hardware and software
aspects in order to keep pace with
the automotive industry’s technology
progression.
“What a compact, portable sim
does is allow easy inclusion of the
human experience into what would
otherwise be an ordinary simulation,
and this turns out to be a critical
part of the process”, explains Phil
Morse, international manager of
Ansible Motion’s Commercial Group.
“Considering the everincreasing
complexity of
today’s vehicles and onboard
systems, we believe
that putting real people into
early-and-often contact with
virtual vehicle systems is a key
part of successful and efficient
vehicle developments.”
Morse adds that portable DiL
simulation allows everyone involved
in the development process – not just
traditional test drivers – the opportunity
to offer relevant subjective feedback.
“A compact simulator like our Theta
C also offers a cost-effective solution
that is easy to install in an office,” says
Morse. “And although it may appear
relatively straightforward to create
something like this for those with
simulation experience, its apparent
simplicity belies its extremely wellthought
out form factor and its powerful
computational backbone.
Theta C’s architecture is said to be
robust enough to handle sophisticated
vehicle and environmental physics
models and connectivity to external
systems like test benches, therefore
allowing validation of emerging
automotive technologies.
“‘Plug and Play’ is actually not that
easy to achieve in a real simulator,”
Morse continues. “But our customers
don’t need to be bothered. They can
leave the heavy lifting to us and carry
on with their real work.”
This type of simulator is proving
increasingly popular among the
industry’s manufacturers and
influencers throughout departments
already invested in tech which have
the existing simulation architecture in
place, yet want to evaluate, experience
and feel the technology from a human
perspective. Simply put, a compact
simulator connects real people with
detailed simulation environments
and is a solution that is addressing the
increasing need for human-in-the-loop
simulation.
This was seen recently when a
leading tyre manufacturer installed
a Theta C simulator at their North
America R&D centre, in order to
expand its research, development and
simulation capabilities. The simulator
was brought in to enable virtual test
driving and evaluation of tyre-roadvehicle
interactions in advance and in
parallel with physical testing.
“Virtual vehicle models help
manufacturers to gain efficiency,
improve performance and reduce
cost during the vehicle development
process,” Morse explains. “Investing
in a compact, portable DiL simulator
allows more OEMs and key suppliers
easier access to the technology, to help
satisfy the need for reliable virtual test
driving.”
Distilling the main engineeringgrade
componentry that’s required
for human immersion inside a
small physical space is proving
key to portable sims. They are fast
becoming the fundamental building
block for connecting real people with
automotive simulation environments,
aimed at delivering a practical
balance between cost, complexity, and
capability. !
What a
of the process
28 WWW.EUREKAMAGAZINE.CO.UK | APRIL 2020
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