"It is important
that the circuit model captures the road surface accurately, but also that it
can be validated to ensure that our vehicle model is running on the same road
surface as the real car,” he continued. "The way in which TerrainServer
captures every LiDAR scanned data-point within the tyre contact patch, and
integrates them all to provide our vehicle model with accurate road input,
improves correlation with our measured data and also feels more realistic for
the driver,” he noted
To ensure the necessary level of track surface detail, rFpro
uses LiDAR scanned data, reproducing surface features in 3D with an accuracy
better than 1mm in Z (height) and 1cm in X and Y (position), representing a
ten-fold improvement over the resolution previously available. In addition to
its existing library of circuit data, rFpro can provide customers with turn-key
solutions for scanning, modelling and providing high definition LiDAR data for
other tracks, or even public road test routes.
Ferrari was equally
demanding of the response speed, or latency, of the system, according to
Tortora. "Video bandwidth is very important to us because we run
multi-channel stereo projection and also wanted the fastest possible refresh
rate,” he said, adding that “rFpro are able to deliver the maximum video
bandwidth, in stereo, at very high refresh rates with just a single frame of
latency between our vehicle model and the projectors. This is the fastest
solution on the market: video bandwidth is probably an order of magnitude
greater than a traditional OpenGL based solution."
With most of the top
F1 teams now using rFpro’s software, the company is turning its attention to
the mainstream automotive industry, where the potential applications are even
greater. The ability to simulate a vehicle’s dynamic behaviour accurately, with
a driver in the loop, makes it feasible to assess extreme situations such as
those encountered when testing ADAS systems, ESP and other control systems
designed to affect the dynamic behaviour of the vehicle.
To deliver complete
DIL simulators for the engineering development of vehicle dynamics, and the
control systems and active safety systems that affect vehicle dynamics, rFpro
works in partnership with motion platform providers such as McLaren, Ansible
Motion and MOOG. The company’s products can wrap around vehicle models from all
the popular modelling environments, including Dymola, SIMPACK, Simulink,
AVL-VSM, CarSim, CarMaker, LMS AMESim, VI-Grade and C/C++.