Operating VTD Server with SENSO Wheel and IPG CarMaker
Operating VTD Server with Autodesk VRED or Unity
Simulation Solver
Main Controller – Steering Wheel and Pedals
Note: Pedal Calibrations are moved to Preferences Dialog.
Auxiliary Controller
Note: Pedal Calibrations are moved to Preferences Dialog.
Motion Platform
Equilibrium State
The CarMaker solver will calculate the vehicle equilibrium state in the preparation phase and apply the transformations to put the vehicle into its state of equilibrium. Typically you will want to subtract these initial transformations so that the motion platform takes its initial position at the first simulation time step.
To get your vehicle’s equilibrium state values, open the CarMaker GUI, load the Test Run, go to Simulation > Model Check and click Start. You will get a text file in the editor. At the bottom of the text file, you will find the corresponding values under the header line “###Geometry (equilibrium or start-off configuration)”.
Driver Hip Point
The transformations received from the CarMaker solver are all given in the FR1 CarMaker reference frame. The FR1 is located in the vehicle’s symmetry plane, at the most rear point of the vehicle, on the ground. For a correct driving experience on the motion platform, these values need to be transformed to the driver hip point and then applied to the motion platform.
The translational accelerations are required for the motion cueing algorithms of Bosch eMotion motion platform. These accelerations received from CarMaker solver are in FR1 CarMaker reference system at the center of gravity. All these values need to be transformed to the driver hip point before being applied to the motion platform.
We assume that the motion platform’s controller makes sure the received rotations apply to the hip point of the person seated on the motion platform.
Motion Cueing X-DOF and YAW-DOF Algorithms
These settings are only available for COSMATE motion platforms. Accelerations exerting forces on the driver’s body are usually called motion cues. The limited workspace of the motion platform makes it impossible to generate long lasting acceleration cues but special motion cueing algorithms can compensate this limitation to some extent. The plugin includes motion cueing algorithms requested by a customer for the X-DOF and the YAW-DOF. To get the best possible driving experience from your specific motion platform, use the custom DLL we provide with the installation to develop your own motion cueing algorithms or contact us to have your algorithms added to the GUI.
Dashboard
The dashboard is designed to run on a tablet or touch screen mounted next to the steering wheel on the nVIZ seat buck. It will allow the driver to select the vehicle type and the test track from a slideshow. After the data has been loaded, the driver can start/stop the engine on the dashboard, select the gear, switch the autopilot and receive feedback on any vehicle parameter while driving. The dashboard is an HTML application run on NodeJs which allows you to modify it to your own design and requirements.
Click the Windows Start button, go to the nVIZ programs group and start the dashboard from there:
The dashboard will parse the directory:
All image files of type *.png found in that directory will be added to the slide show on the dashboard. The name of the image file is relevant! When selecting an image from the slideshow on the dashboard, the name of the image file will be passed to CarMaker and VRED. CarMaker will load a Test Run with that same name and VRED will switch a variant set with that same name.
Launch Google Chrome (Internet Explorer is not supported) and type in the URL:
<host name>:8000
Render Engine
Real-Time Operating System
For time-critical simulation, data acquisition and process control applications you can have VTD Server communicate with a real-time operating system.
Tracking System
Leap Motion as a finger tracking system is currently in the development phase. It is available as a beta version in this release. For further information, please contact nVIZ.
Preferences
Preferences dialog can be found under ‘Edit’ in the VTD Server GUI. It contains some of the settings that are not expected to be changed very frequently. It contains settings of the pedals and the motion rotation point of motion platform among many other settings. To get the live analog value of the pedals in the preferences dialog, the server must be started and the respective controller must also be checked.
‘Save’ button can be used to save the preferences to the file which will be loaded every time the application starts. ‘Cancel’ button will just close the preferences dialog without saving the changes. ‘Restore Defaults’ button can be used to load back the factory settings. The user preferences are saved to the preferences file under:
Preferences - General
Preferences - Main Controller
Preferences - Auxiliary Controller
Preferences - Motion Platform