Introduction
The Department of Mechanical Engineering of the Politecnico di Milano is working on a number of research projects that, funded by public bodies, need to be strenghtened by higher education activities.
The research projects that are active are:
- ITS ITALY 2020, on: safe, sustainable and efficient transport (funded by European Community and National Government)
- LIS4.0, on: Excellent University Departments (funded by National Government)
- Driving Simulator, on: establishing a Driving Simulator laboratory at Politecnico di Milano for strengthening the local automotive industry (funded by European Community and Lombardy Regional Government)
Topics
The scientific topics listed above are extremely relevant for future mobility, they are described in important documents of the European Commission (STRIA, https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/publication/strategic-transport-research-and-innovation-agenda-stria-roadmap-factsheets).
The topics are:
- Cooperative – Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS)
- Green Vehicles and Lightweight Construction
- Industry 4.0
C-ITS are a number of very different techniques in which digitalization of transport processes provides more safe, more sustainable and more efficient mobility;
Lightweight Construction is a set of enabling technologies for future vehicles, namely electric and automated/autonomous and connected;
Industry 4.0 is also, among other more comprehensive definitions, a set of technologies for the digitalization of production processes, design activities included.
All of the three topics can somehow be powered by the usage of a Driving Simulator because:
- C-ITS need to be developed in a safe environment for discovering potential issues related to semi or fully automated traffic navigation and realistic human-machine interface, in a fully immersive perceptional environment;
- Lightweight component construction advantages on Green Vehicles could be assessed in terms of their effects on improved dynamic performance (noise, vibration, harshness, acceleration, speed, fuel and tire consumption …). Ad hoc DOE and /or optimization campaigns can be conducted on the vehicle model for exploring the design space due to parameters modifications, and specific on-line maneuvers including the human-in-the-loop can be then be performed to assess the associated driver feeling of the selected component(s).
- Industry 4.0 is the elective technology that underpins the usage of a Driving Simulator, actually the slogan “Bridge the gap between simulation and testing to reduce development time” is extremely meaningful. Many OEMs since a few years reached a maturity model for the usage of their Driving Simulators, and several of them published news about estimated reduction of TTM in the range from one third to one half of the total development time for a new vehicle model/platform.
in the following the four webinars.