Automotive engineering, test and development consultancy, Horiba MIRA, has opened a new Driving Simulator Centre at its head office in Nuneaton, UK. A key feature of the centre is its latest-generation driver-in-the-loop simulator technology.
The company has invested more than £4 million (US$4.88m) in the facility, designed to enable automotive OEMs, start-up vehicle manufacturers and tier one suppliers to develop new vehicles that meet their target vehicle attributes.
At the heart of the Driving Simulator Centre is the UK’s first DiM250 Dynamic Simulator from VI-grade, one of the world’s most advanced and high-performance dynamic motion driving simulators (and winner of a Vehicle Dynamics International Award). The simulator can reduce the need for physical vehicle testing and prototypes, reducing cost, time and associated carbon emissions. Horiba MIRA claims that, at full reduction, one vehicle model developed using the VI-grade simulator could avoid a maximum potential of 14,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e).
Customers using the Driving Simulator Centre will also be given access to its VI-grade Compact simulator, which was acquired in 2021.
The virtual development tools can be used for many automotive applications such as the driven attributes of vehicle dynamics, NVH and drivability, as well as holistic engineering across ADAS, human machine interface (HMI) and x-in-the-loop (XiL) applications.
Declan Allen, Managing Director at Horiba MIRA said, “Through the newly launched Driving Simulator Centre, the speed, cost and complexity of refining driven vehicle attributes to meet today’s changing customer expectations is significantly reduced. This new facility enhances Horiba MIRA’s capabilities and is an enabler of its attribute-led development methodology, while also being a critical tool supporting complex engineering developments across ADAS, HMI and XiL.”
