Canton, MI, US, September 28th, 2022 – VI-grade, the simulation and driving simulator company that accelerates product innovation by bridging the gap between simulation and physical testing, today announced two additional expert contributors for its first-ever North American ZERO PROTOTYPES Summit (ZPS) to be held on October 12th at Multimatic’s SimCenter in Novi, Michigan. Automotive race and passenger car test driver, Andy Priaulx, and renowned transportation analyst and Forbes journalist, Sam Abuelsamid, will add to the summit's high-profile program, which includes presentations from leading automotive companies such as Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Automobili Lamborghini, Bridgestone, HARMAN International, Hitachi Astemo, McMaster University and Stackpole Engineering Services. 

Already at 85% of registration capacity, this positive response to the ZERO PROTOTYPES Summit underscores the strong interest the North American community has in attending an event where automotive manufacturers and suppliers demonstrate their achievements in closing the gap between CAE simulation and physical testing to achieve zero prototypes sign-off.

In his role as a professional race and test driver, Andy Priaulx will add another important dimension to the event. The three-time FIA World Touring Car Champion has been involved with Multimatic Motorsports since 2016 as an advisor and full-time test driver in numerous development projects. He will provide exclusive insights about his experience with the DiM250 driving simulator installed at Multimatic’s SimCenter.  

“I look forward to attending and contributing to the first-ever North American ZERO PROTOTYPES Summit”, said Andy Priaulx. “I especially look forward to being able to present to attendees the benefits I’ve directly experienced using the DiM250 DYNAMIC Driving Simulator to actually impact the development process. I’ll also be holding a live racing demo session where I’ll push Multimatic’s DiM to its limits to prove the value a driving simulator brings in accelerating and refining the vehicle development process”, he added.

The Summit will be moderated by Automotive Industry Analyst and Forbes journalist, Sam Abuelsamid. After more than two decades as a product development engineer in the automotive industry developing advanced electronic control systems and embedded software, Sam is a principal analyst at Guidehouse, leading the Mobility Ecosystem Research Service with a focus on transportation electrification, automated driving and mobility services. Sam regularly contributes to a number of publications including Autonomous Vehicle Engineering, Forbes, and co-hosts the Wheel Bearings podcast.

 “I’m thrilled to moderate VI-grade’s first ever North American ZERO PROTOTYPES Summit with such a broad array of OEMs and suppliers presenting” he said. “As the industry shifts electrification, automation and new vehicle architectures, simulation is more important than ever. I look forward to learning how these global automotive leaders are pushing the development envelope with VI-grade’s products towards achieving zero prototypes, as well as experiencing the full suite of VI-grade’s simulators at Multimatic.”  

In addition to the high-level technical presentations from industry-leading companies, the North American ZERO PROTOTYPES Summit will also feature a series of application specific driving simulator sessions. The full range of VI-grade’s Driving Simulators, specifically targeted at discipline-oriented applications (Ride & Handling, NVH, ADAS & AV, HMI and Motorsports), will be available for attendees to experience: DESKTOP and DESKTOP NVH Simulator, COMPACT and COMPACT NVH Simulator, STATIC Simulator, DiM250 DYNAMIC Simulator. AutoHawk, VI-grade’s HiL solution powered by Concurrent Real-Time for automotive applications, also will be on display for the first time ever in North America.

VI-grade gratefully acknowledges the support of its North American ZPS sponsors:  Rebel Dynamics, SAGInoMIYA (Platinum); 3DMapping Solutions, Barco, Concurrent Real-Time, Hexagon, Smarteye and Stackpole Engineering Services (Golden).

Registration for the North American ZERO PROTOTYPES Summit is still open and free-of-charge at https://conference.vi-grade.com/. Final details about the event will be added to the VI-grade website as they become available.

Darmstadt, Germany / North Canton, OH, US, September 7th, 2022 – VI-grade, the simulation and driving simulator company that accelerates product innovation by bridging the gap between simulation and physical testing, and Stackpole Engineering Services, a leading full-service provider of engineering solutions to tire and vehicle OEM’s and suppliers, today announced their strategic partnership, that will significantly advance the companies’ research and development efforts in the areas of tire testing, tire modeling and simulation application.
 
Stackpole Engineering Services utilizes a VI-grade DESKTOP Simulator at their Corporate office in North Canton, Ohio to support the evaluation and certification of tire models and vehicle physics in various professional driving simulator applications. Through this strategic partnership, VI-grade and Stackpole Engineering Services now directly collaborate on the development and implementation of tire and vehicle models across VI-grade’s driving simulators, ensuring the best possible support for the joint customer base of vehicle and tire manufacturers.

Highlights of the partnership between Stackpole Engineering Services and VI-grade include the following major advances: 

• Close cooperation in the evaluation and certification of third-party software as well as vehicle and tire models to ensure native and seamless application in VI-grade driving simulators
• Equipping all VI-grade SimCenters worldwide with SES-AgileTire™ software suite for tire model analysis and providing access to sample library of commercial tire models.

“It is an honor for Stackpole Engineering Services, Inc. to partner with the team at VI-grade on the creation, implementation and validation of tire models and vehicle physics in the VI-grade simulator environment, and to provide industry-leading support for our joint customers”, commented Michael Stackpole, President and Founder, Stackpole Engineering Services. “Stackpole Engineering Services is proud to include the VI-grade simulator as part of our expanded engineering service offerings, and are focused on utilizing this world-class toolset to evaluate and certify commercial and custom tire & vehicle models, and to support our customer’s unique virtual environment programs.”

“I am pleased to announce the collaboration of VI-grade and Stackpole Engineering Services”, said Tony Spagnuolo, Vice President Business Development at VI-grade. “We look forward to collaborating even more closely with our valued partner Stackpole Engineering Services in the development and implementation of tire models on our driving simulators to provide the best possible simulation solutions to our joint customer base of vehicle and tire OEMs.”

Stackpole Engineering Services will be present at the 41st Annual Tire Society Conference (September 12-13, 2022 in Akron, OH) with a booth and their VI-grade DESKTOP simulator. In addition, Kelly Holshue, Delivery and Installation Manager - North America at VI-grade will give a dedicated presentation on the benefits of virtual tire evaluation using a Driver-in-the-Loop Simulator (DiL). 
 

Darmstadt, Germany, July 26th, 2022 – VI-grade, the simulation and driving simulator company that accelerates product innovation by bridging the gap between simulation and physical testing, today announced the launch of its extensive sponsorship program targeted at Formula Student teams from all over the world. Through this comprehensive sponsoring initiative, VI-grade supports engineering students around the globe in their quest to build a more sophisticated race car and to optimize its performance, thus enhancing the teams’ overall R&D processes. Teams eligible for the sponsorship program will receive free access to VI-grade's state-of-the-art real-time simulation software and driving simulator environment, gaining a long-term competitive advantage through the use of advanced technology.

The Sponsoring Program consists of two different packages, based on the team’s capabilities. The Basic Package grants students free access to VI-Motorsport, VI-grade’s motorsport simulation software which helps racing teams find the best set-up for their car and to explore more design variations in less time. The Advanced Package is designed for Formula Student teams who already have a Desktop Simulator setup and includes free access to VI-DriveSim, VI-grade’s unique driving simulator software platform. 

This enables the teams to put their VI-Motorsport vehicle models in a Driver-in-the-Loop environment, allowing teams to test new designs and component variations with their drivers yet without having to build physical prototypes. Students may apply for up to five Basic Package licenses and one Advanced Package license per team. Additionally, the teams will have access to a selection of reference material and video tutorials to guide them through the preliminary steps in the VI-Motorsport and VI-DriveSim software environment.

“I am pleased to announce the launch of our comprehensive sponsoring program for Formula Student Teams from all over the world”, said Guido Bairati, Managing Director at VI-grade. “Today's students are tomorrow's engineers, and we're excited to support them on their journey and introduce them to our cutting-edge software products, used by leading OEMs, suppliers and motorsport teams. This is a great opportunity for students to boost their teams’ R&D processes and improve their performance in Formula Student / FSAE races, while gaining in-depth knowledge of our state-of-the-art simulation tools that they can leverage in their future careers in the automotive and motorsport industry.”

“What VI-grade did for us the last two seasons was just phenomenal. The software is extremely user-friendly, which means everyone in our department can easily learn how to use it”, commented Khalil Mahjoub, Team Leader, Kaiserslautern Racing Team – KaRaT e.v. “In addition to that, it has the potential to go into specifics to answer various questions and help us to achieve our goals. We are also using VI-grade software to help us simulate the vehicle behavior of our autonomous racecar. We are still exploring the capabilities of this software and really want to thank VI-grade for the huge support.”

VI-grade representatives will attend the main Formula Student Germany event, to be held Aug. 15-21 in Hockenheim, and will be available to provide additional information and to answer students' questions about the sponsorship program. 

In order apply for a VI-grade software sponsoring, interested teams are asked to fill out the registration form on the following website /en/about/sponsorship_program/

Novi, Michigan, US & Tokyo, Japan, July 14th, 2022 – VI-grade, the simulation and driving simulator company that accelerates product innovation by bridging the gap between simulation and physical testing, today announced it will globally expand its premier  “ZERO PROTOTYPES Summit” (ZPS) to Japan and the United States, to be held on September 22nd in Tokyo, Japan and on October 12th at VI-grade’s SimCenter in Novi, (suburban Detroit) Michigan. These regional events build on the highly successful ZERO PROTOTYPES Summit hosted at VI-grade’s main technical development center in Udine (Italy) in May 2022, which attracted more than 220 physical and over 700 virtual attendees. 

VI-grade’s ZERO PROTYTPES Summit is rapidly becoming a premier, must-attend automotive industry event, where automotive manufacturers and suppliers demonstrate their accomplishments towards closing the gap between CAE simulation and physical testing in the quest to achieve zero prototypes sign-off. VI-grade’s unrivalled technological superiority and global leadership in the areas of real-time simulation, driving simulators and HiL (Hardware-in-the-loop) enable its partners and customers to push the product innovation envelope ever further in their efforts towards achieving zero prototypes.

As with the flagship event in Udine, both of VI-grade's local ZPS events will showcase a combination of high-caliber technical presentations from industry-leading companies, application-specific driving simulator sessions, and a series of software trainings and user groups. Participants will gain exclusive insight into how the major players in the automotive industry use VI-grade’s cutting-edge simulation, driving simulators and hardware-in-the-loop technologies to accelerate the development of new vehicles, thereby getting ever closer to virtual sign-off with “Zero Prototypes”. 

The ZPS events are targeted towards executive-level engineering managers and experienced design engineers from the major automotive OEMs, Tier1 suppliers, motorsport teams, universities, and research centers from the respective regions.

“We look forward to bringing our ZERO PROTOTYPES Summit to North America and Japan in fall 2022”, commented Guido Bairati, Managing Director at VI-grade. “This is a great opportunity for us to demonstrate not only our entire vision and our tools to the Japanese and North American communities, but also to learn more about the latest projects and advancements our customers and partners have achieved using VI-grade's innovative simulation solutions.”

“We are pleased to invite our valued customers, partners and sponsors to the SimCenter Detroit for our first-ever North American ZERO PROTOTYPES Summit event”, added Dean Streck, Director North America at VI-grade. “As with VI-grade’s flagship event in Udine, Italy, the event in Novi allows attendees to experience the full spectrum of our simulators live and in action.  Our main focus for the Summit is demonstrating how VI-grade tools drive immediate technical and financial returns in our customers’ product development process across ADAS, Vehicle Dynamics, NVH and HMI areas of focus, including multi-attribute simulations.   Attendees will gain valuable insight from hearing actual customer testimonials describing how adopting VI-grade technologies moved them from “skeptic to speaker” and who now cannot imagine developing products without VI-grade simulation technologies embedded at the core of their work.”

“After three years and numerous virtual events, we are thrilled to host a local physical conference for our Japanese community for the second time”, said Toru Yoshii, Country Manager, VI-grade Japan.” The event will feature high-caliber Keynote and Technical presentations from major Japanese automotive manufacturers and suppliers, as well as demo sessions at selected driving simulators and a technical exhibition area, where all sponsors will showcase their solutions to the audience.”

Confirmed Sponsors of the ZPS local events (to-date) are: Rebel Dynamics, SAGInoMIYA (Platinum); 3D Mapping Solutions, Barco, Concurrent Real-Time, Hexagon MSC, Solize Corporation and HBK (Golden). Additional sponsors and details on the presentations will be announced shortly.

Pre-Registration for the local ZERO PROTOTYPES Summits is now open. Join the ZPS2022 Community now at the link https://conference.vi-grade.com/ to stay up-to-date on these exceptional events.

Udine, Italy, June 29th, 2022 – VI-grade, the simulation and driving simulator company that accelerates product innovation by bridging the gap between simulation and physical testing, today announced the 2022.1 release of its main software products for real-time simulation and driving simulators. The release includes major product updates and several usability enhancements for VI-CarRealTime, VI-WorldSim, VI-DriveSim and for the whole NVH Simulator product suite.

The 2022.1 release of VI-CarRealTime, VI-grade’s flagship real-time vehicle simulation environment, features multiple benefits for users:

• The Solid Axle suspension model is now based on a separate body representing the axle, leading to a more accurate computation of steering dynamics
• The Steering Subsystem Editor is now completely redesigned to be more intuitive and to allow better control of its different elements
• The new Yaw Moment Event enables to generate a representation of the vehicle maneuvering envelope computing its dynamic equilibrium at constant speed over a given range of side slip and steering 
• The Adams Car Interface now supports a side-by-side installation mode, enabling the usage of a single Adams Car installation with multiple versions of VI-CarRealTime

The 2022.1 release of VI-WorldSim, VI-grade’s user-friendly, fully integrated graphic environment focused on ADAS development, features the following enhancements:

• An enhanced model of the sky, featuring volumetric clouds and other atmospheric visual improvements, more accurate illumination at night and presence of the moon
• AI controlled vehicles are now able to swerve around obstacles 
• Any vehicle may be given exclusive control to the external SDK process independently from the behavior specified in the scenario
• The Simulink library has been expanded, providing access to trigger activation, weather conditions, vehicle lights and control actions generated by the AI module.

The 2022.1 update also includes enhancements for VI-DriveSim, VI-grade’s software platform enabling easy and complete control of driving simulator components:

• A brand-new user interface enabling to manage all driving simulator subsystems from a single application
• The MotionCueing module reduces the actuation latency for cable-driven simulators thanks to an increased operative frequency. 
• The new MultiCueing module coordinates the usage of the VI-ActiveSeat unit with the motion platform actions.  

Finally, the 2022.1 release of NVH Simulator contains several major improvements and new functionalities:

• All-new NVH Simulator toolbox featuring many new capabilities and enhancements: full capabilities of previous toolbox, Magic Brush sound editing multi-tool, Wav edit (expanded functionality with trim, fade, invert), Order Designer (expanded to create EV orders), Road/Engine Masking playback improvements
• NVH Simulator Data Preparation Software enriched with several new capabilities and improvements: High-res order display for easy order identification in EVs, Auto order identification, Integrated masking noise calculation for engine and road masking, Batch Processing
• NVH Simulator recording improvements (Multi-channel / Multi-sound-object recording, simplified output options)
• Support of new VI-WorldSim version and scenarios (Calabogie racetrack, Cityscape)
• Support of assembly ID switching for QNX Liveamp
• MME audio output option in VI-SimSound

“I'm overjoyed to share this significant software update for VI-flagship grade's software product line,” said Roberto De Vecchi, VI-grade Product Development Manager. “All of our real-time and NVH software solutions have undergone a significant overhaul with version 2022.1, and I am convinced that customers of our offline and driving simulator software will benefit much from it.” 

The 2022.1 software release, including a detailed list of new features and enhancements, is now available for download.  Registered users can access and download version 2022.1 by logging into /en/reserved_area/software_download/VI-grade_Software_Suite_2022_1/

Tokyo, Japan, June 28th, 2022 – VI-grade, the simulation and driving simulator company that accelerates product innovation by bridging the gap between simulation and physical testing, today announced that global engineering service provider SOLIZE Corporation (Tokyo, Yasutoshi Kudo President & CEO), has successfully implemented VI-WorldSim, VI-grade’s user-friendly, fully integrated, graphic environment. With the adoption of VI-WorldSim, SOLIZE built a customer simulator, which includes Concurrent Real-Time hardware and VI-DriveSim, VI-grade’s unique driving simulator platform managing and synchronizing all driving simulator software tools. 

SOLIZE primarily relies on VI-WorldSim in the development of algorithms for autonomous and assisted driving, thus significantly enhancing its R&D capabilities in this area. VI-WorldSim is fully supported by the current driving simulation setup and expands existing capabilities with realistic, multi-agent AI traffic behavior and sensor fusion.

In addition to expanding its own R&D capabilities, SOLIZE also supports Japanese OEMs and suppliers with the software in various customer projects, providing them with a safe and reproducible environment for extensive ADAS and AV development. 

“The combination of VI-DriveSim and VI-WorldSim with our custom compact driving simulator based on Concurrent Real-Time hardware allows us to considerably advance the development of ADAS and AV algorithms” said Yoshiki Yasuno, Technical Fellow at SOLIZE. “We are certain that this driving simulation setup will significantly aid our research and development efforts, allowing us to build novel autonomous and assisted driving solutions.”

“We are pleased to announce that SOLIZE Corporation is an active user of our VI-WorldSim software, already achieving initial progress”, commented Toru Yoshii, Country Manager Japan. “It is the perfect complement to their existing driving simulations setup, allowing SOLIZE to take their ADAS & AV capabilities to an even higher level.” 

Darmstadt, Germany, June 14th, 2022 – VI-grade, the simulation and driving simulator company that accelerates product innovation by bridging the gap between simulation and physical testing, today announced the launch of Autohawk, its new Hardware-in-the-Loop (HiL) solution for automotive applications. Employing the most advanced open Real Time Operating System (RTOS) available in the marketplace today, AutoHawk is powered by Concurrent Real-Time’s industry leading HiL technology. AutoHawk perfectly addresses the industry’s demand for a cost-effective, complete, and open solution comprising hardware, software and integration services.

VI-grade’s new HiL platform, based on leading multi-core technology from Concurrent Real-Time, addresses the need for a flexible solution that can cost-effectively validate all different electronic control units (ECUs). Innovative HiL solutions are also needed to test electric vehicles (EVs) and to validate the function of the battery unit and other power electronics components. 

“AutoHawk, our new, flexible HiL platform, can be used across the entire development cycle, from concept to sign-off”, said Christoph Ortmann, Vice President for HiL applications at VI-grade. “It consists of real-time hardware, real-time OS, real-time software and I/O cards and is highly configurable, since both VI-grade real-time software and 3rd party software can be installed on it. AutoHawk also operates as a stand-alone Linux based high-power computer, as a HiL system or in combination with a driving simulator or on a real vehicle.”

“We are excited to add AutoHawk to the sizable and rapidly growing automotive HiL testing market.” commented Ken Jackson, President, Concurrent Real-Time (part of HBK’s Virtual Test Division). “AutoHawk is our joint response to the growing need for HiL testing due to the increasing number of ECUs installed in modern vehicles to take care of active chassis controls and of advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) capabilities.”

“The HiL market is critical for driving innovation and allowing us to leverage our core competencies and experience in driving simulation and simulators”, added Guido Bairati, Managing Director at VI-grade. “Our vision is to build an integrated, virtual test approach with Hardware-in the loop being an essential component of the development process. This will enable our customers to decrease the number of physical prototypes throughout the entire development cycle and to ultimately achieve virtual sign-off.”

VI-grade recently introduced AutoHawk at the 2022 VI-grade ZERO PROTOTYPES Summit in May, 2022, and will officially launch the new HiL platform at Automotive Testing Expo Europe in Stuttgart, Germany, June 21-23, making it available to be experienced live and in action at the VI-grade booth (#8515) in Hall 8. Registration to the Exposition is open to all and free-of-charge at https://www.testing-expo.com/europe/en/register.php.