Our simulator can be used across many different vehicles bringing real benefits of scope. Jaguar Land Rover uses it for vehicle dynamics, NVH and ride assessment as well as HMI, control systems, aerodynamics, off-road capability and Advanced Product Creation programmes. It’s a platform which allows excellent cross-functional working within metres of where most of the key engineers are based.
We’ve been working alongside the Jaguar Land Rover team for some time and have seen that they were able to dive straight in and use the simulator to interrogate the stability and precision of latest generation cars. They set out with small, defined tasks and were surprised how soon, even in its ‘off the shelf’ state, the simulator started to throw up other unanticipated characteristics and action items to be investigated. A simulator can help automotive engineers assess the driving experience qualitatively, in terms of ‘feel,’ just as their customers do. This is far more useful than desktop simulations in isolation.
Specification details include an actual production seat, various Jaguar and Land Rover steering wheels (with reach and rake adjustment) and pedal boxes which are integrated into the driver cockpit area to provide the most realistic driving position and are interchangeable within around 20 minutes.
The simulator integrates with the IPG Carmaker vehicle modelling software used by Jaguar Land Rover for its desktop simulation via the Cruden Panthera ePhyse Net external physics interfacing package. The software allows companies to run their own, unmodified vehicle models natively, in co-simulation, with its simulators saving engineering teams money and development time. A big advantage of ePhyse Net is that third party libraries such as Bosch ESP can be used since there is no need to compile the code. This means there is no need for Simulink Coder.