VI-grade, a specialist in human-centric simulation-driven vehicle development technologies, has announced the inauguration of the first Zero Prototype Lab, by EDAG Group, the engineering services provider based in Wolfsburg, Germany. A Zero Prototype Lab is a facility for automotive companies striving to conduct test drives and subjective evaluations of new vehicles in the virtual world, without building prototype vehicles.
EDAG’s new facility features VI-grade’s DiM500 FSS (Driver-in-Motion Full Spectrum Simulator), a real-time driver-in-the-loop simulator that delivers precise motion, vibration, and sound ranging from 0 to 20kHz. As a complement to the DiM500 FSS, the lab also features VI-grade’s Compact full-spectrum simulator and an additional AutoHawk hardware-in-the-loop platform, which can seamlessly connect driving simulators to both existing and future hardware-in-the-loop systems.
The Zero Prototype Lab enables engineers to test critical functions, such as autonomous driving, steering, braking, and acceleration, in conjunction with driving systems. This approach reduces the need for costly prototypes and shortens development cycles.
This way of testing also enables the optimisation of driving dynamics in virtual environments, independent of seasonal weather constraints. Overall, the lab’s operations will contribute to reducing material and resource usage, thus minimising the CO2 footprint of the vehicle development process.
“With the opening of the Zero Prototype Lab, we are pioneering a new era in vehicle development. Technology developers and vehicle manufacturers worldwide can now streamline their development processes, working faster, more efficiently, and more sustainably through precise simulation,” stated Harald Keller, CEO of the EDAG Group. “In this way, we are driving forward the pervasive change in vehicle development and the mobility industry, fostering forward-looking value creation.”
Guido Bairati, managing director of VI-grade added that, “With the DiM FSS, our most powerful simulator to date, EDAG is taking its engineering services to an unprecedented level. The DiM FSS simulator is a quantum leap in experimental simulation, seamlessly integrating driving dynamics, motion, vibration and sound into an immersive experience. I am looking forward to the exciting customer projects that will be created in this pioneering facility and will shape the mobility of tomorrow.”
