A driving simulator that is the first of its kind in North America was recently installed in Windsor by FCA Canada.
The simulator, installed at the FCA Automotive Research & Development Centre on Rhodes Drive at the beginning of September, has what the engineers call "nine degrees of freedom" three more than your typical simulator.
"Simply putting it the suspension movements where there are really short bursts of movement are all associated with the hexapod, a six-legged table, and all the turns and lane changes are all associated to the tripod, which gives the three additional degrees of movement," explained Head of Engineering for FCA Canada Tony Mancina.
He said all future products in the North American line of FCA vehicles will first be tested with this simulator. Mancina said prior to the simulator everything would be tested using prototypes and it would take several iterations before the final product was determined.
The driving simulator at FCA Automotive Research & Development Centre, September 24, 2019. (Photo by Maureen Revait)
"What this simulator does it allows us to take all the virtual modelling and input it into the drive simulator and all those prototypes we talk about we can do that all virtually now. We can take all the changes and edits, as much as possible, to tune the ride handling of that vehicle and then finally build the prototype," said Mancina.
The simulator allows engineers to test things like drivability, ride handling, and driving assistance technologies. Hardware can also be mounted in the simulator to test driver distraction.
"It allows us to immerse the driver in the cockpit itself so we can evaluate the performance of a vehicle based on ride handling or cognitive recognition following the eye pattern of an individual driver," said Mancina.
Two additional engineers were hired to operate the simulator specifically. In addition, engineers from across the company will be travelling to Windsor to test different product iterations on the machine.
The FCA Automotive Research and Development Centre has a number of labs and road simulators to test materials, lighting, brakes, and environmental conditions.
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