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Training / Education

The Tire as a Vehicle Component

The principal functions of the pneumatic tire are to generate driving, braking, and cornering forces while safely carrying the vehicle load and providing adequate levels of ride comfort. This course explains how tire forces and moments are generated under different operating and service conditions and, in turn, demonstrates how these forces and moments influence various vehicle responses such as braking, handling, ride, and high-speed performance. The content focuses on the fundamentals of tire behavior in automobiles, trucks, and farm tractors, but also includes experimental and empirical results, when necessary. 

Training / Education

LIDAR for ADAS and Autonomous Sensing

Advanced Driver Assist System (ADAS) and autonomous vehicle technologies have disrupted the traditional automotive industry with potential to increase safety and optimize the cost of car ownership. Light detection and ranging (LIDAR) sensing, a sensing method that detects objects and maps their distances, is seeing rapid growth and adoption in the industry. However, the sensor requirements and system architecture options continue to evolve. This course will provide the foundation to build LIDAR technologies in automotive applications.

Training / Education

Infrared Camera for ADAS and Autonomous Sensing

Advanced Driver Assist System (ADAS) and autonomous vehicle technologies have disrupted the traditional automotive industry with potential to increase safety and optimize the cost of car ownership. Among the challenges are those of sensing the environment in and around the vehicle. Infrared camera sensing is seeing a rapid growth and adoption in the industry. The applications and illumination architecture options continue to evolve. This course will provide the foundation on which to build near infrared camera technologies for automotive applications.

Training / Education

Model-Based Engineering Overview for Systems Management Practitioners

Use of Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) has been growing across industry, extending beyond defense and aerospace to include various commercial enterprises such as automotive and healthcare. Tool vendors are quick to point out benefits of this model-based approach and practices but are not always clear how MBSE benefits can be realized on a project. When deployed successfully, several key considerations should be addressed that maximize the value for a use-case. This four-hour class will discuss the nature and purpose of the MBSE approach and how key information is used for successful MBSE deployment as it relates to Systems Management.

Training / Education

Tire and Wheel Safety Issues

One of the most important safety critical components on cars, trucks, and aircraft is the pneumatic tire. Vehicle tires primarily control stopping distances on wet and dry roads or runways and strongly influence over-steer/under-steer behavior in handling maneuvers of cars and trucks. The inflated tire-wheel assembly also acts as a pressure vessel that releases a large amount of energy when catastrophically deflated. The tire can also serve as a fulcrum, both directly and indirectly, in contributing to vehicle rollover. This course covers these facets of tire safety phenomena.

Training / Education

Applied Brake Controls Test Track Experience ABS, TCS, and ESC

  Take notes.  Take a spin.  Repeat.  Six classroom modules (2 each for ABS, TCS and ESC!) are paired with six driving modules on a real-world ice and snow development test track in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  There's no better way to reinforce classroom learning than by grabbing the steering wheel.  All of the driving exercises have been specifically developed so that anyone can hop in the car and immediately link what you have just learned in the classroom.  

Training / Education

High-Performance Brake Systems

While most passenger car brake systems are quite robust and reliable under typical operating conditions, high-performance driving and/or racetrack operation generally require alternative design solutions to optimize consistency and longevity. Whether it is brake fluid fade, cracked rotor discs, chronic knockback, or insufficient brake pad life, the stresses of motorsports can pose unique challenges to even the very best brake system designs.

Training / Education

Model-based Development of Embedded Software in Compliance with ISO 26262 – Challenges and Effective Solutions

This training class describes how to develop and safeguard safety critical embedded software in serial projects with Simulink in compliance with ISO 26262 (part 6). Beginning with a general overview of the ISO standard, we proceed by focusing on the ISO 26262 requirements that are specifically relevant to model based development. We address the impact the standard has had on model-based development with Simulink, as well as the requirements for model and software architecture in safety critical software. We also look at modeling guidelines and testing before wrapping up the class by assessing ISO 26262 readiness of controller functions.

Training / Education

Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE)

This course is offered in China only and presented in Mandarin Chinese. The course materials are bilingual (English and Chinese). As the complexity of products increases, traditional text-based systems engineering can no longer meet the needs. To solve the problem, Model-based Systems Engineering offers a unified communication platform among relevant staff by carrying out diagram-based unambiguous description, analysis and design for the demand, and structure and behavior of complex systems in the form of a model.

Training / Education

LIDAR and Infrared Cameras for ADAS and Autonomous Sensing

This course examines ADAS and autonomous vehicle technologies that offer the potential to increase safety while attempting to optimize the cost of car ownership. LIDAR (light detection ranging) and Infrared camera sensing are seeing a rapid growth and adoption in the industry. However, the sensor requirements and system architecture options continue to evolve almost every six months. This course will provide the foundation to build on for these two technologies in automotive applications. It will include a demonstration model for LIDAR and Infrared camera.

Training / Education

Applied Vehicle Dynamics

2024-09-23

Take notes! Take the wheel! There is no better place to gain an appreciation for vehicle dynamics than from the driver’s seat. Spend three, intense days with a world-renowned vehicle dynamics engineer and SAE Master Instructor, his team of experienced industry engineers, and the BMW-trained professional driving instructors. They will guide you as you work your way through 12 classroom modules learning how and why vehicles go, stop and turn. Each classroom module is immediately followed by an engaging driving exercise on BMW’s private test track.

Training / Education

Introduction to Brake Control Systems ABS, TCS, and ESC

2024-09-19

Electronic brake control systems are required standard equipment on cars and trucks. Vehicles benefit from optimized braking, enhanced acceleration, and improved stability that these systems provide. The instructor introduces participants to system-level design considerations, vehicle interface requirements, and inevitable performance compromises that need to be addressed when implementing these technologies. Participants will begin by defining the tire-road interface and analyzing fundamental vehicle dynamics.

Training / Education

ADAS Application Automatic Emergency Braking

2024-09-19

Active safety and (ADAS) are now being introduced to the marketplace as they serve as key enablers for anticipated autonomous driving systems. Automatic emergency braking (AEB) is one ADAS application which is either in the marketplace presently or under development as nearly all automakers have pledged to offer this technology by the year 2022. This one-day course is designed to provide an overview of the typical ADAS AEB system from multiple perspectives.

Training / Education

Photogrammetry and Analysis of Digital Media

2024-08-28

Photographs and video recordings of vehicle crashes and accident sites are more prevalent than ever, with dash mounted cameras, surveillance footage, and personal cell phones now ubiquitous. The information contained in these pictures and videos provide critical information to understanding how crashes occurred, and  analyze physical evidence. This course teaches the theory and techniques for getting the most out of digital media, including correctly processing raw video and photographs, correcting for lens distortion, and using photogrammetric techniques to convert the information in digital media to usable scaled three-dimensional data.

Training / Education

Fundamentals of Steering Systems

2024-08-13

Design and development of a modern steering system influences vehicle response to steering wheel input, driver effort, comfort, safety and fuel economy. In this interactive course participants will analyze the steering system from the road wheel to the steering wheel. Day one will begin with a deep dive into the anatomy and architecture of the lower steering system (wheel end, suspension geometry, linkages and steering gear), its effect on vehicle response and how forces and moments at the contact patch are converted to a torque at the pinion.

Training / Education

Exploration of Machine Learning and Neural Networks for ADAS and L4 Vehicle Perception

2024-07-18

Convolutional neural networks are the de facto method of processing camera, radar, and lidar data for use in perception in ADAS and L4 vehicles, yet their operation is a black box to many engineers. Unlike traditional rules-based approaches to coding intelligent systems, networks are trained and the internal structure created during the training process is too complex to be understood by humans, yet in operation networks are able to classify objects of interest at error rates better than rates achieved by humans viewing the same input data.

Training / Education

Tire Forensics and Markings

2024-06-24

This course introduces basic tire mechanics, including tire construction components based on application type, required sidewall stamping in accordance with DoT/ECE regulations, tread patterns, regulatory and research testing on quality, tire inspections and basic tire failure identification. The course will provide you with information that you can use immediately on-the-job and apply to your own vehicle. This course is practical in nature and supplemented with samples and hands-on activities.

Training / Education

Fundamentals of Vehicle Suspension Design

2024-05-14

The design and development of vehicle suspensions significantly influences vehicle handling and ride comfort. Suspension system design excellence follows the basic laws of physics using design synthesis techniques, a methodical process for suspension geometry development. Suspension geometry is the foundation of vehicle performance from which high-confidence suspension components and tunings can be developed. Suspension component design continues to move toward mass and cost efficient designs with high levels of stiffness being essential to achieving design requirements.

Training / Education

Photography for Accident Reconstruction, Product Liability, and Testing

2024-05-14

Many technical projects, most vehicle and component testing, and all accident reconstructions, product failure analyses, and other forensic investigations, require photographic documentation. Roadway evidence disappears, tested or wrecked vehicles are repaired, disassembled, or scrapped, and components can be tested for failure. Photographs are frequently the only evidence that remains of a wreck, or the only records of subjects before or during tests. Making consistently good images during any inspection is a critical part of the evaluation process. 

Training / Education

Vehicle Dynamics for Passenger Cars and Light Trucks

2024-05-07

This course will present an introduction to vehicle dynamics from a vehicle system perspective. The theory and applications are associated with the interaction and performance balance between the powertrain, brakes, steering, suspensions and wheel and tire vehicle subsystems.  The role that vehicle dynamics can and should play in effective automotive chassis development and the information and technology flow from vehicle system to subsystem to piece-part is integrated into the presentation. Governing equations of motion are developed and solved for both steady and transient conditions.