Luxury automaker Porsche is set to improve its vehicle design and pre-validation with super realistic human interactive driving simulators.
In a press release on 5 February, the company said this is important because of subjective feedback from testing of such simulators for early implementation in the design.
While Porsche already has a facility for simulator driving, the company is expanding the facility to bring more efficiency in the testing of vehicles ahead of prototype production.
Near real testing situation
With the human interactive nature of the new driving simulators, test subjects have a near real driving experience, exposing them to the exact feeling and conditions obtainable when the vehicle is finally produced.
This gives the feeling of test driving without a vehicle, and is a flexible way to detect and correct any potential issues with the design at the development stage.
The test situation is also reproducible, with the ability to specify and reproduce the surroundings at will, which is almost impossible in reality.
One of the tests being carried out currently at Porsche is that of Porsche Stability Management (PSM), also known as the Electronic Stability Program (ESP), which must be precisely matched to different vehicle types at the calibration stage.
The challenge according to the company is that test vehicles with sufficient component maturity are not yet available for this purpose in the early stages of the development process.
Porsche Engineering therefore wants to increase its use of driving simulators for the subjective assessment of ESP functions.
Martin Reichenecker, Senior Manager Driving Dynamics & Validation at Porsche Engineering said:
“To do this, we employ comprehensive integration of vehicle and scene generation, a real control unit with associated software, and a user interface that allows the driver to interact directly using the steering wheel and pedals. This allows us to carry out the journey in real time under the most realistic conditions possible.”
Expanding infrastructure
Porsche currently operates a driving simulator with a motion platform and high-end visualization system in Weissach.
The company will expand this facility as part of the Virtual Validation Center (VVC) project in Weissach.
The VVC will be built in the existing development center to avoid CO2 emission according to the company, with 2,100 square meters of space.
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