Customer Projects
University of Hertfordshire
One of the UK's leading motorsport and automotive engineering schools has acquired a Cruden Hexatech simulator to provide students of its multiple motorsport engineering courses with even more of the advanced technical skills required by Formula One teams. The driver-in-the-loop, electromechanical simulator is situated in a new facility at the Hatfield campus, supported by a 20 terminal simulation suite. There, students split into teams and develop their own vehicle setups and analyse the results of their laps using industry standard Pi toolbox software which is fully compatible with the Cruden simulator. The University of Hertfordshire is hoping that its simulator can reduce its Formula Student testing budget while providing repeatable test conditions and an infinite opportunity for students to practice engineering refinements based on driver feedback and data analysis.
"The Cruden simulator will bring a significant competitive advantage to the University of Hertfordshire's engineering and technology department, adding a whole new dimension to the students' learning experience, and responding to the requirements of the F1 teams, into which many of our students graduate. Our new £300,000-plus facility - the only one of its kind in the UK - will allow students to develop and race their own tyre, suspension and aero models using real data in real time."
Jeff Peters
Principal lecturer in motorsport engineering and head of simulation and modelling.
For more information go to www.herts.ac.uk
Loughborough University - Automobile and Aeronautical Engineering
The teaching of Automobile and Aeronautical Engineering at Loughborough, UK, started in 1919 and 1935 respectively and the university department has since gained a national and international reputation for research. Based at a purpose-built £14 million facility, the extensive laboratories and experimental facilities used for undergraduate teaching include a computer-controlled chassis dynamometer with an exhaust emissions measurement system, low speed wind tunnels, an instrumented turbojet engine, a structural dynamics and acoustics laboratory, numerous instrumented test vehicles, and an electric vehicle research laboratory...... in addition to a Cruden aircraft and road vehicle simulator.
"The simulator is used to provide a realistic experience of flight dynamics to all our first year aeronautical engineering students, and is also invaluable for teaching the principles of vehicle dynamics to our automotive students in both undergraduate and postgraduate courses. Our ability to implement our own vehicle models in Simulink, and the high bandwidth and innovative vehicle motion cueing has also been used to great effect on two PhD projects. And although our simulator was installed 7 years ago, Cruden continue to provide us with excellent support, and invaluable new features in upgraded software as it becomes available."
Matt Best
Senior Lecturer in Vehicle Dynamics
Loughborough University Automobile and Aeronautical Engineering department, Loughborough, UK
