Ansys Driver Development: A General Purpose Driver for Handling and Rough Road Simulations 2023-01-0776

A driver model in multibody dynamic analysis software is to run a vehicle dynamics model in various customer applications: handling events such as lane changes and circle turns, and durability events such as Belgian blocks, hill courses, driveways, and race tracks. Ansys Motion is a robust multibody dynamic analysis software for many applications including vehicle dynamics simulations. This paper discusses Ansys Driver development in Ansys Motion. It addresses developments of critical driver features: identification of vehicle handling capability, a path planning from complex road profiles, an analog filter design, and a longitudinal and lateral control of vehicle models. It also discusses how to achieve the robustness of the driver model for various customer simulation scenarios not affecting simulation output due to too much driver control. This study presents a couple of examples of handling and durability event simulations. Ansys Driver has a robust path following using an optimal preview control comprehending vehicle handling capabilities. It also has a superior speed control, where the vehicle model can rigorously track target vehicle speed profiles not only on a flat surface but also in hilly courses. The examples demonstrated that Ansys Driver can follow given trajectories and speed profiles reasonably well for customer applications in handling and rough road simulations. This paper also presents a couple of next steps in further driver development.