The EUREKA E! 1493 ULTIMATE project has developed the world's first fully realistic road vehicle driving simulator for industrial use. Highly innovative architecture is the key to its realisation within reasonable space and budget constraints, while providing state-of-the-art performance in terms of visual and motion immersion.

The compact and lightweight mechanical structure consists of a generic car cockpit, a panoramic on-board screen and driver-access systems, mounted on a novel extended motion system that enables full simulation of acceleration – such as violent changes of direction – which was not possible before. ULTIMATE is already playing a key role in developing safer road vehicles in Europe.

Simulators can make a major contribution to vehicle design and the study of human driving factors. But, while they have long been used in aircraft development and training, simulators have been of more limited value for road vehicles due to the large linear motion needed, for example, when turning corners or during braking. As a result, the cost of suitable car simulators had been prohibitive.

Dutch, French and UK partners in the ULTIMATE project therefore combined expertise in car design, motion platforms, displays and software to develop a highly cost-effective new simulator design that will allow a more detailed study of human behaviour when driving road vehicles, as well as the trial and development of new aids to improve performance and safety for vehicle users.

The ULTIMATE simulator is compact and modular with a choice of conventional screen or head-mounted virtual reality displays supplying car performance and visibility information – from the very beginning of vehicle development.

These new simulators will be used to improve vehicle and road safety and to develop new systems for cars as well as to carry out driver-behaviour studies. Potential customers include car makers, transport research laboratories, universities and road safety authorities.

An initial unit was launched in 2005 – the only such simulator in Europe and the first worldwide to be available for industrial use. It already offers 15 databases corresponding to different journeys, including car manufacturers' own test tracks.

It makes possible the validation of different driving aids and innovative technology, such as intelligent steering, as well the study of person-vehicle interactions when drivers are stressed or distracted.

Control of all features – from motion sound and visual rendering to session management and intelligent traffic generation – is provided by the SCANeR II driving simulation software developed by Renault and used around the world for industrial and academic research.

Improving levels of performance of personal computers (PCs) was another key factor to reducing costs substantially. Three PCs running under Linux are used to operate the displays, while dual-processor PCs running under Windows handle data acquisition, applications and control the mechanics of the simulator.

Coherent structure for co-operation

"EUREKA played a crucial role both in providing access to funding and in offering a coherent legal structure for co-operation over the research period," says Dr Kemeny. "Without such a structure I believe we could not have done this project."

Overcoming mechanical constraints

New design and materials were essential to the project. "We needed to overcomethe mechanical constraints of earlier simulators to be able to accelerate fora sufficient duration of 1 to 3 sec at 0.1g for example in X and Y axes witha high payload," explains ULTIMATE project leader Dr Andras Kemeny, head of theRenault Technical Centre for Simulation and Renault's expert in driving simulationand virtual reality.

A simulator capable of providing the accelerations required had been developed in the USA for academic research but at a very high cost – in the region of €66 million. ULTIMATE took an innovative and particular cost-effective approach, resulting in a low overall weight for the simulator – around 3.5 tonnes. It uses a compact six-axis platform mounted on a second large linear motion bi-directional frame that allows peak accelerations of up to 7 m/s2 in X and Y directions.

The components for the motion platform were supplied by Dutch partner Bosch Rexroth, using off-the-shelf technology. The work carried out in the project has already led the company to win orders for similar platforms – including one for Leeds University in the UK at the end of 2005. This market was previously dominated by the USA.

Advanced virtual display