Ferrari adopts revolutionary driving simulation technology from VI-grade
Marburg, Mar 6th, 2013 – VI-grade GmbH, the leading provider of best-in-class software products and services for advanced applications in the field of system-level simulation, today announced that Ferrari selected the newly developed motion platform named DiM (Driver in Motion). The new dynamic platform for the driving simulator will be installed later this year at the Ferrari Gestione Industriale site in Maranello, Italy and will be used for testing and optimizing the setup of the GT vehicles developed and marketed by Ferrari.
Leveraging the experience developed with Formula 1, Ferrari will be using the driving simulator for GT and road car development to optimize performance, system integration and driver feeling.
The driving simulator is based on the usage of VI-CarRealTime, VI-grade’s flagship solution for real-time vehicle dynamics simulation. The vehicle model is used to calculate the real-time response to the driver’s input that is provided to VI-MotionCueing, that in turn produces the inputs to the inverse kinematic program which controls the actuators.
“The DiM solution completely meets our specifications and expectations for a system that represents the perfect complement to our existing engineering process”, said Marco Fainello, Head of the Car Performance Simulation at Ferrari. “We rely on VI-grade software solutions for our automotive system simulations since several years and we are looking forward to realizing the maximum benefits out of the high-resolution simulated motion control capabilities provided by DiM. We are also convinced that the revolutionary 9 degrees-of-freedom motion platform from Saginomiya will allow us to reach the target to improve the tools to optimize both handling and ride of the cars we are developing.”
“Motion platforms architectures for driving simulators have been undergoing a very creative development phase in recent years” said Diego Minen, Technical Director, VI-grade. “The new VI-grade conceptual idea and the platform final design provided by Saginomiya was chosen by Ferrari in place of competitive solutions because its kinematics has shown to be ideal for low/high motion frequencies separation and extremely efficient for implementing our new motion cueing strategy, which has been fine tuned with the help of professional driver’s in our and other simulation centers over the past two years. The combination of DiM mechanical architecture and performance, VI-CarRealTime and VI-MotionCueing characteristics is certainly unique to obtain the best driver motion perception”.
“Since the beginning of our activities, back in 1964, we developed, manufactured and sold different types of test systems and we have established our presence in many different industry sectors such as machinery, railway, aerospace, nuclear power, energy and, above all, automotive” said Akiko Watanobe, Public Relations & Advertisement Section at Saginomiya. “Thanks to our history and our experience, we are now favorably reputed with high reliability in many fields as a comprehensive test system maker worldwide using our core hydraulic and electric technology in our Dynamic Servo product line. This strong background made us becoming the best reliable partner to engineer, manufacture and support a new concept of motion platform such as DiM. We are highly committed to serve the needs of the most technically advanced customers in global market and we are delighted to work with Ferrari and VI-grade in developing such a revolutionary motion platform for driving simulators.”
“We are extremely happy to report this very important commercial success at Ferrari with our VI-DriveSim Dynamic solution”, said Guido Bairati, Sales Director, VI-grade. “Thanks to its expertise in design and production of worldwide known GT cars, Ferrari represents for us the ideal reference for the deployment and the further development of our driving simulation technologies.”About Saginomiya
Saginomiya is the leading provider of automatic controls and test systems in Japan as and is very highly reputed throughout the world for the quality of its products. Saginomiya started developing, manufacturing and selling test systems in 1964, expanding in several business fields such as civil engineering and construction, industrial machinery, railway services, power generation, aviation and automotive. Saginomiya’s “Dynamic Servo” has been developed as the ideal test systems utilizing state-of-the-art core technologies such as electric and hydraulic hybrids as well as a next-generation simulator. Saginomiya is are highly committed to serve the needs of the most technically advanced customers in the global market.