Virtual prototyping simulation for a passenger vehicle

The primary goal of virtual prototyping is to eliminate the need for fabric ating physical prototypes, and to reduce cost and time for developing new p roducts. A virtual prototyping seeks to create a virtual environment where the development of a new model can be flexible as well as rapid, and experi ments can be carried out effectively concerning kinematics, dynamics, and c ontrol aspects of the model. This paper addresses the virtual environment u sed for virtual prototyping of a passenger vehicle. It has been developed u sing the dVISE environment that provides such useful features as actions, e vents, sounds, and light features. A vehicle model including features, func tions, and behaviors is constructed by employing an object-oriented paradig m and contains detailed information about a real-size vehicle. The human mo del is also implemented not only for visual and reach evaluations of the de veloped vehicle model, but also for behavioral visualization during a crash test. For the real time driving simulation, a neural network model is inco rporated into the virtual environment. The cases of passing bumps with a ve hicle are discussed in order to demonstrate the applicability of a set of d eveloped models.