VI-grade, the simulation and driving simulator company that accelerates product innovation by bridging the gap between simulation and physical testing, has announced the completion of the installation and commissioning of the DiM250 DYNAMIC Driving Simulator at American multinational automaker Ford Motor Company. The driving simulator has been installed at the Company’s headquarters in Dearborn, MI, USA to enhance research and development capabilities and to accelerate automotive development.
In detail, Ford Motor Company has purchased and installed a complete turn-key solution from VI-grade based on the DiM250 DYNAMIC Driving Simulator (Driver-in-Motion) equipped with the whole VI-DriveSim software suite and with active technology (belts, seat, brake and shakers).
“We are extremely pleased to announce the adoption of our DYNAMIC Driving Simulator at such a global and prestigious company as Ford,” said Guido Bairati, Managing Director, VI-grade. “This success builds on our long-standing collaboration with Ford Motor Company,who has already virtually connected its different engineering sites around the globe through the implementation of several, smaller size DESKTOP, COMPACT, COMPACT NVH and STATIC simulators from VI-grade, thus leveraging their full power across NVH and Ride &Handling disciplines.”
To reproduce vehicle movements and acceleration, the DiM solution takes a different path to driving simulation and is based on a patented revolutionary design with nine actuators. The resulting configuration with its 9–degrees of freedom enables going beyond the basic six-actuator design of a simple hexapod or similar, thus providing a larger workspace while maintaining high stiffness. This results in a system suitable for low as well as high frequencies, both of which occur in automotive chassis design. For this reason, DiM enablesusers to investigate vehicle dynamics as well as ride and comfort on the same driving simulator.
