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Testbed.CONNECT™
closes the gap between
test and simulation.
F O C U S 2 7
Ever more stringent CO2
emission requirements, both in the
passenger and commercial vehicle
sector, the associated powertrain
electrification and hybridization
tendency and the growing trend toward
highly automated driver assistance
systems are presenting OEMs
with increasingly difficult challenges.
In vehicle development, in particular,
OEMs face mounting pressures
to make as many decisions as
possible as early as possible and as
efficiently as possible. In order to
make exact statements about certain
vehicle components and variants
within the entire system early
on in development, simulation has
meanwhile become an integral part
of the process.
With its Integrated and Open Development
Platform (IODP), AVL
has created a way to integrate the
development process by crossing
the boundaries of the virtual and
real world. “IODP, the integrated
development platform, bridges the
gap between the virtual and the real
world. By linking simulation to
the existing hardware, we create an
interconnected, complete system
in which testing can take place in a
manner that is both stable and safe.
In doing so, we support our customers
in their efforts to make decisions
much sooner and more easily than
they did before,” Klaus Rothbart,
Product Manager at AVL, explains.
HIGHEST SIMULATION
PERFORMANCE ON THE TESTBED
In addition to the already established
Model.CONNECT™ – a product
which enables the integration of individual
simulation tools for creating
virtual prototypes – AVL now
presents the next IODP element
to close the gap between simulation
and test. Klaus Rothbart: “With
Testbed.CONNECT™ we bring
simulation to the testbed. This means
that we can put applications on the
testbed that would never be executable
without simulation; on the other
hand, we enable the frontloading of
tests, which otherwise could not be
run until later on in the development
process or on the road.” Moreover,
our IODP products are not only suited
for a variety of testbed types, but
also for testbeds of different manufacturers.
“Our products are based on
an open conceptual design, i.e. they
not only run on AVL testbeds but also
in test environments that do without
AVL software,” the AVL expert
emphasizes.
With its testbed virtualization approach,
Testbed.CONNECT™
opens the door to a more agile development
process. Physical prototypes
are replaced by virtual ones in
the early stages of product development;
throughout the process, further
physical components are added. This
not only results in higher flexibility in
the decision-making process, it also
includes the possibility of evaluating
vehicle attributes sooner and identifying
mistakes at an early stage –
which in turn saves time and costs,
and ultimately enhances efficiency.
Apart from its high level of performance,
Testbed.CONNECT™ is the
first tool available to bring simulation
models to the testbed which previously
were noncompilable. Thanks to
patented AVL algorithms, such simulation
tools can now be coupled to
the testbed too and stably integrated
into the real-time test procedure.
THE FUTURE STARTS TODAY
In addition to Model.CONNECT™
and Testbed.CONNECT™, AVL is
also developing Data.CONNECT™
for the integration and organization
of the huge data volumes generated
in virtual and real tests.
“Data.CONNECT™ achieves consistency
and transparency by establishing
relationships between existing
data. Equipped with this tool, customers
always know in what context
data were generated, and are given a
convenient and fast way to compare
them with new data,” says Wolfgang
Puntigam, Head of IODP. “With our
CONNECT products, we allow the
increased digitization of the development
process. As these tools do not
interfere with the customers’ processes,
customers are free to build their
own digitization platforms with our
products,” he adds. <