Virtual Proving Ground Testing: Deploying Dymola and Modelica to recreate Full Vehicle Proving Ground Testing Procedures

Abstract

Physical testing of new automobiles is often a lengthy and expensive process. Virtual testing of vehicles offers a much more flexible, efficient solution to testing new vehicles, whilst also providing a more consistent and easier to mange testing environment. This paper presents how the VeSyMA suite of libraries contains the necessary features required to recreate 2 typical physical proving ground tests in the virtual world. Key new features added to the VeSyMA suite to enable this are presented, namely: a new method of defining the proving ground road model using GPS and body accelerometer data, a new driver model capable of conducting a series of scheduled driving tasks (mimicking a human test driver) and new tyre contact models more suitable to typical proving ground rough roads.