Würzburg Institute for Traffic Sciences (WIVW) develops advanced motorcycle riding simulator relying on VI-grade technology

Marburg, January 10th, 2017 – VI-grade today announced that the Würzburg Institute for Traffic Sciences (WIVW), Bayern-based company providing services in the field of human factors, developed an advanced motorcycle riding simulator, relying on VI-grade technology. The development of this dynamic motorcycle riding simulator was part of the ZIM funded project DESMORI, supported by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (KF 2012453RP3; partners: TU Darmstadt (FZD) and BMW Motorrad). In particular, the simulator is taking advantage of the real-time VI-BikeRealTime motorcycle simulation software from VI-grade and, besides for HMI-design, it will be used for rider training as well as research on rider behavior in a broader sense (e.g. hazard perception or implementation of an autonomous brake assist).

 

“The first motivation to develop an advanced motorcycle riding simulator at WIVW was the implementation in the human factors research and development process” said Sebastian Will, Project manager focusing on powered two-wheeler research, WIVW. “The simulator as research tool allows assessing human-machine interfaces for powered two wheelers in a safe and controlled environment. This extends WIVW’s long-standing human factors experience from the automotive to the motorcycle sector.”

 

“Generally, driving simulation in human factors research is a powerful tool to investigate relevant research questions early in the development process” added Will. “The safe and fully controllable environment combined with an adaptable mockup in terms of user interface, control units, etc. is a perfect framework for human factors research. This methodology is already well-established in the automotive sector since decades. Recent developments in the motorcycle area (such as board computers, electronic ride mode and suspension adjustment, Bluetooth connection) call for new display and control units: by constructing the DESMORI dynamic motorcycle simulator, WIVW provides best conditions to deal with these upcoming research questions.”

“In order to draw appropriate conclusions from simulator studies, the riders shall find conditions in the laboratory that support them in showing naturalistic behavior: therefore, a simulator needs to meet the riders’ expectations in terms of riding dynamics” concluded Will. “WIVW has chosen VI-BikeRealTime 2016 with a Co-simulation with Matlab/Simulink to solve this. The VI-grade software made it easy to de-couple the VI-rider model from the simulated motorcycle in order to feed the model with the real riders’ input, whereas the Matlab/Simulink co-simulation offered variability regarding additional controller implementation (e.g. stabilization systems, input determination and motion cueing).”

WIVW will present a technical paper related to their advanced motorcycle riding simulator in occasion of the 2017 International VI-grade Users Conference, to be held on May 10th – 11th 2017 in Turin, Italy.

VI-BikeRealTime is a modeling, post processing and real-time analysis environment for motorcycle models which allows designers, analysts and track engineers to take into account effects from the motorcycle itself as well as from the road profile and the rider. VI-BikeRealTime is also the ideal platform to perform software-in-the-loop and hardware-in-the-loop activities on a motorcycle model. This is made possible thanks to the interface with MATLAB Simulink and with most widely used HIL platforms. In this way, engineers can first develop reliable control systems in a safe environment and then test them checking how real ECUs interact with the virtual model. ECUs durability under realistic working conditions can be tested as well. VI-BikeRealTime is interfaced with VI-Motorcycle, the ADAMS-based multibody solution for detailed motorcycle models, and therefore real-time models can be automatically derived from detailed multibody models. This approach, already proven to be successful in the automotive industry, allows users to decrease modelling time, to increase confidence in results and to maintain only one database. VI-BikeRealTime has been proven to deliver reliable results in several different projects with leading motorcycle manufacturers. Despite of the fact that the model is simplified, results match very well experimental measurements.

SILAB is a driving simulation software that allows driver-in-the-loop testing of vehicle components in a realistic virtual environment. It offers tools to design traffic scenarios by modelling complex road networks and traffic behavior. The scenarios can be flexibly combined to form reproducible test tracks. During simulation, high quality image rendering and a realistic sound simulation create an immersive impression for the driver. The software supports simulator setups starting from simple desktop systems up to driving simulators with multiple image channels, motion systems and real vehicles as mockups. User defined software and hardware components can be integrated into the driving simulation via common communication protocols (e.g. TCP/IP, CAN-Bus) or by using a flexible SDK. Thereby, SILAB offers detailed access to information on all aspects of the virtual world, e.g. road data, simulated traffic and surrounding objects. All data that is created or measured by the software can be recorded time synchronously. SILAB is used in the fields of R&D, training, medical diagnostics and rehabilitation.

The Würzburg Institute for Traffic Sciences (WIVW) is a company providing research services in the field of human factors. The focus lies on the interaction between humans and technical systems, especially addressing issues arising from the automotive sector. In addition to its research services, WIVW develops and distributes the SILAB driving simulation software. Our long-standing clients in both divisions include private companies and public organizations. WIVW GmbH was founded in 1997. The company employs an interdisciplinary team of research and development specialists. Our team members hold academic qualifications in fields such as psychology, ergonomics, engineering and computer sciences.