This article takes a look at how BMW is using hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation in developing the Hydrogen 7 engine. The HIL systems are used in this case for both hardware and software testing, and plans are to use it in later development stages for safety testing.

A state-of-the-art motorcycle simulator capable of giving researchers valuable information on rider and road safety, motorcycle design and motorcycle engineering is currently under construction at The University of Nottingham, British Midlands, UK.
The simulator — which is the first of its kind in the world — will consist of a Triumph motorcycle mounted on a unique […]

AUDI AG recently built the auto industry’s fastest supercomputer to advance safety standards. Crucial in optimizing car safety, the new system is based on ESI Group’s PAM-CRASH 2G simulation software and an HP Cluster Platform 3000BL system, providing 15.36 teraflop/s of computing performance for crash simulation models of Audi. The supercomputer implementation places the leading […]

The Pickering Interfaces 40-193 and 40-194 are modules that simulate both high and low current faults when testing control systems. This is especially useful in a Hardware-in-the-Loop (HILS) test applications. Each module supports 7 channels which faults can have injected - each channel can be opened (to simulate and open circuit) or shorted to one […]

Dassault Systèmes has released the Abaqus BioRID II dummy model for use with SIMULA. This model will be used by the automotive engineers during the design phase of seats and head restraints to assess and reduce the risk of neck injuries resulting from rear-end vehicle collisions.
The new Abaqus BioRID II has been developed and validated […]

The Physical Modeling Consortium, a forum in which organizations can share ideas and advance the development of Rapid Plant Modeling methodology based on symbolic computation, held its inaugural meeting today. The meeting was held in conjunction with the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC) Symposium on Advances in Automotive Control. At this meeting, Toyota presented […]

Express Computer, billed as “India’s Only IT Business Weekly,” is running an article on the use of simulation in automotive design and testing in India. Titled “Simulation and auto R&D,” the article focuses on the IT aspects, but has some interesting information for engineers as well.

IPG Automotive has improved the computer architecture of their hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test benches, allowing them, the company claims, up to ten times faster.
They have replaced the VMEbus system used in earlier systems with a compactPCI (cPCI) system. One advantage of the new cPCI systems are smaller and more easily used in prototype vehicles. Another change […]

Concurrent Computer’s SIMulation Workbench provides a complete framework to develop and execute real-time hardware-in-the-loop and man-in-the-loop simulations. Features include:

a real-time database for fast access to all model parameters and signals,
flexible support for MATLAB/Simulink models,
support for existing and new hand-written Fortran, C/C++ or Ada code based models,
support for many COTS I/O boards,
GUIs to configure, […]

ESI Group has just released Version 2.0 of BioRID-II (Biofidelic Rear Impact Dummy, model) for PAM-CRASH/PAM-SAFE 2G. This first industrial version of the newest BioRID-II dummy has an articulated thoracic/lumbar spine similar to the human one (having 24 vertebrae). The neck is maintained under pre-tension load via a muscle substitute consisting of a single damper […]