VI-grade presents Official Review of 2018 Users Conference

232 engineers, managers and simulation experts from 91 automotive, motorsports, motorcycle and rail companies, universities and research centers based in 15 countries throughout the world came together to discuss the latest trends in simulation. The aim was to compare notes with other users of VI-grade technology during the event that took place on May 8th-9th, 2018 at the LA PISTA conference center and proving ground in the city of Lainate, Italy (on the outskirts of Milan).

The event took place under the motto “Bridging the gap between testing and simulation” and was rated as “very good” to “excellent” by 97% of the participants. It offered an extremely comprehensive agenda, featuring 35 presentations from renowned international companies such as 3D Mapping / Alfa Romeo / Applus+ IDIADA / Bertrandt / Concurrent Real-Time / cosin scientific software / Danisi Engineering / dSPACE / FCA Fiat Chrysler Automobiles / FCA Latam / Ferrari & Michelin / FEV / Fraunhofer ITWM / Hochschule Kempten / Honda R&D / HORIBA MIRA / MAGNA Steyr / MegaRide & Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II / MSC Software / Munich University of Applied Sciences / NIO / Nizhny Novgorod State Technical University / Saginomiya / Smart Eye / Technische Universität Darmstadt / thyssenkrupp Presta / TODEMA / Toyota InfoTechnology Center / Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia / Volvo Cars.

The location selected for this year’s event featured a proving ground embedded in the conference venue and provided an ideal setting for elaborating on our corporate vision of “bridging the gap” between testing and simulation. Some of our customers showed their cars in action on the proving ground: the relevant telemetry data was streamed to the conference room and used in real time on a static simulator installed on the podium.

Marco Fainello (Danisi Engineering / Addfor) presented a paper – which was also selected by the audience as “UC2018 Best Presentation” – entitled "Use of Simulation with HiL for Development of Advanced Vehicle Functions". This dealt with the use of a driving simulator in the development of a vehicle dynamics controller using cameras and sensor fusion for a different approach to stability control. Marco Carnà (Ferrari) and Mathieu Grob (Michelin) presented a paper entitled "From the Track to a Driving Simulator: a Journey of a Tire from a Component to a Model". This focused on combining a detailed vehicle model with a thermomechanical tire definition for the simulation of extreme performance aspects by means of a live demonstration of the car on track and on the driving simulator. Juergen Heit (NIO) presented a paper entitled "A Scalable and Fully-Integrated Simulation System for Automated Driving", which dealt with the extent to which the simulation stack implemented at NIO exhibits several vital characteristics of automated driving (AD) systems. These include HD maps, reconstructions of real-world environments and models of road user behavior.

During the conference, we also had the chance to award “UniNa Corse – Squadra Corse Federico II" and “Strohm und Söhne e.V. – Noris Motorsport” the First Prize of the 2018 edition of the Virtual Formula competition in the Internal Combustion and Electric Vehicle categories respectively. The teams have been awarded a full software package from VI-grade.

The 2018 event also featured an Icebreaker social event on the evening of May 7th in which all customers and partners got together informally to learn more about the forthcoming new driving simulation technologies provided by VI-grade and its partners.

“As usual, a very nice conference! Extremely well organized. Thank you for this great event.”; “Nice range of presentations. Informative and interesting aspects of engineering covered. Well done!”; “This was a great experience as it was my first time at the VI-grade Users Conference. I hope to return soon. I also hope that the continued and expanded use of DiL simulators and live demonstrations is realized for future conferences.”; “I’m satisfied and the event met my expectations. Having a simulator on the stage and a vehicle on track outside was very interesting…” – these are just a few of the comments left by selected participants.

The event was organized with the collaboration of Saginomiya (Platinum Sponsor), Danisi Engineering, MSC Software, Sim.Co.VR, ThyssenKrupp Presta (Gold Sponsors), 3D Mapping, Addfor, Barco, Concurrent Real-Time, cosin scientific software, domeprojection.com, dSPACE, FEV, Fraunhofer ITWM, Horiba Mira, Multimatic, Smart Eye and TODEMA (Silver Sponsors) and BE CAE & Test and MegaRide (Bronze Sponsors). To access more information about the event, view all the pictures or download selected proceedings, please go to www.vi-gradeUC.com.

Dates and location of the 2019 edition of our international event are soon to be announced! Stay tuned!