Mechanical Simulation Corporation has released version 9 of its TruckSim vehicle dynamics software. In this new version, TruckSim makes it even easier to simulate tests used by truck manufacturers, suppliers, and researchers to evaluate performance of vehicles that don’t yet exist, or to cover conditions that are difficult or too dangerous to handle with physical testing.
TruckSim 9 has numerous improvements in the math models, such as extending the tire model to handle asymmetric data, or increasing the number of add-on features such as sensors, payloads, etc. The number of roads and target paths was increased dramatically in support of customers developing ADAS and autonomous driving technologies. According to Dr Michael Sayers, CEO and CTO, “The internal design of the math models has been reworked for version 9. We expect the new architecture to facilitate creation of many more extensions over the next few years.”
Other parts of the software package were modified extensively, or replaced completely. The plotting tool used since the earliest versions of the software has been replaced with VS Visualizer, the tool used to generate videos for simulated cameras. Plots and videos are now synchronized. Sayers adds, “When you use the plot command to find the maximum value of a variable, all plots synchronize to that time, as do all video screens. Having multiple camera views and multiple plots all synchronized really speeds up the process of understanding complicated 3D behavior of the vehicle.”