VI-grade has announced the commissioning and installation of one of its STATIC simulators at the McMaster Automotive Resource Centre (MARC) on the McMaster University campus in Ontario, Canada.
The simulator will form part of the MARCdrive lab and is to be used for the development of automotive components and control systems, with a focus on powertrain electrification, autonomous systems, human-machine interfaces and driver monitoring systems.
“We are delighted to report the installation of our STATIC simulator at McMaster University,” said Guido Bairati, vice president of sales and marketing at VI-grade. “We are happy to have the chance to leverage our professional driving simulator solutions at the renowned McMaster Automotive Resource Centre in Hamilton, Ontario, which is situated in a leading jurisdiction for auto production in North America. We are looking forward to witnessing and facilitating all applications of our STATIC simulator as an important tool for research and development activities for the industry and as a precious device for educational purposes.”
VI-grade’s simulator comes as part of a significant extension for the university’s automotive research capabilities, especially for the MARC, which is one of Canada’s leading research facilities in the area of transportation electrification and smart mobility. Following the installation of the new equipment, driver perception and inputs can now be considered earlier in the design process, meaning component performance can be measured before a prototype is made, and enabling the ‘drive-before-build’ approach to be undertaken by researchers.
This process will enable the MARC to conduct more virtual environment testing where the performance of automotive components and control systems can be tested without the costly and time-consuming task of producing prototypes.
“Much of our design at MARC is done virtually, so being able to test our systems on board a vehicle allows us insights into the system’s performance that we wouldn’t have unless we prototyped them,” said Ali Emadi, professor and Canada excellence research chair laureate, McMaster University. “For this reason, the possibility to have a driver in the loop in the VI-grade’s STATIC simulator, allowing us to include the driver’s perception when testing our systems, as well as the ability to test the performance of a component with other vehicle systems before prototyping it, is of great value for our organization.”