In a recent post, Ford’s vehicle dynamics core methods and simulation supervisor Louis Jamail discussed the speed benefits of the company’s virtual testing capabilities. Jamail spent time on Ford’s racing team during his two decades with the company, and envisioned transitioning the simulation tools used by the racing division over to Ford’s other programmes
“The Product Development Simulator I envisioned started putting vehicles through their paces in a virtual environment in 2020,” he said. “In the years since it opened, it’s lived up to the potential.”
According to Jamail, part of virtual testing’s power is speed: “In a single day, we can run simulations that would take six months in real life. We can run ten times as many tests in a tenth of the time.”
VIRTUAL TESTING ADVANTAGES
Virtual testing offers numerous advantages for engineers, such as eliminating the need for mechanics to switch out parts before running the next test. Vehicle damage that might destroy a physical test vehicle can instead be repaired with a few clicks. Virtual testing also allows vehicle performance to be simulated in all kinds of environments, from sub-zero temperatures and frozen landscapes to deserts and rough terrain, without any of the associated time, cost or logistics of getting a vehicle to and from such locations.
Another key advantage of virtual testing is the ability to control variables such as temperature and weather to ensure identical conditions for repeat tests.
SPEEDING UP SIMULATION
Today, the simulator in Ford’s Dearborn facility has been used by every programme at the company, and other simulators have been opened at Ford sites across the world. Ford’s Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) team is using the simulator for the development of key features such as its BlueCruise hands-free highway driving.
As Ford’s virtual testing programme has grown, the simulator team has developed a global ecosystem to keep virtual testing consistent across all the company’s programmes and locations, meaning information and improvements can be shared quickly.
“We’re also branching out into off-road simulations and have started to work with suppliers to integrate supplier simulation capabilities into the Ford Simulator ecosystem,” Jamail added.
ELECTRIC ERA EXPANSION
Ford is expanding operations at its Long Beach, California hub, where it has brought together tools, talent and labs to design, test, and refine the company’s next generation of electric vehicles, beginning next year with an affordable midsize truck.
What started three years ago as a secret skunkworks project has grown into a 350-person team at the Electric Vehicle Development Centre. Here, the Advanced EV team can move ideas from concept to testing in hours or days instead of weeks or months – a pace reflected in its mantra of “fail fast, learn faster.”
Everything in Long Beach is focused on Ford’s Universal EV Platform. So the team doesn’t have to compete with other products for resources, work spaces feature a design studio, a complete milling and 3D printing lab, battery development, and real-world testing capabilities.
Before ideas become physical, collaboration goes digital. A meeting room features a floor-to-ceiling LED wall to display life-sized vehicles and is even large enough for the team to drive in multiple prototype vehicles. Long Beach staff can also use the wall to collaborate with colleagues in Dearborn, Palo Alto, Louisville, or elsewhere, helping speed up decisions.
