Ford CAVES in to virtual design

Ford engineers are using virtually reality to design vehicles.

Car-maker Ford has revolutionised the way it works using a 3-D Computer Automated Virtual Environment (CAVE) to design and refine its cars.  Creating a digital car and being able to 'virtually' sit in and experience it allows engineers to interact with, and test, vehicles before they even become solid clay models.

The room where it all happens has large white walls which form a three-sided box. High-powered projectors then throw images on to each wall and the ceiling, with a dummy car interior is mounted in the middle. Wearing 3-D glasses framed with motion detectors, engineers sit in the car seat and the screens instantly melt into a hyper-realistic virtual world where they are immersed in the computer-simulated interior of a new car.

The CAVE can bring sharp focus to a wide range of ergonomic details that could otherwise require costly re-modelling further down the design process.  These include:

• assessing visibility of the outside world from inside the car (CAVE uses an animated external environment including pedestrians and cyclists)
• reaching the rear view mirror
• placing bottles into door pockets.
• being able to access and compare multiple designs – including vehicle interiors produced by other manufacturers
• 3-D simulation of different windscreen wiper designs (CAVE enabled engineers to identify the “butterfly” system, with the wipers move in opposing directions to providing better visibility).

The CAVE concept is certain to catch on with other motor manufacturers who will be keen to bypass the costly production of multiple physical vehicle prototypes, saving both time and money.

Ford is already seeing the beneifts of the technology, claiming that, the 10 days required to manufacture different design examples and fit them to a prototype can be reduced to just a day or two, with the simulator doing the rest.

When only a real component will do, Ford has solved the problem with 3-D printing to quickly produce one-off prototype components, such as door handles or seat panels. The company is now mulling the idea of producing large-volume car parts in the same way.