Formula CarMaker Sponsorship Program

[Kevin Riley]

Hi Everyone,

First, let me introduce myself: My name is Kevin, and I am a Support Engineer for IPG Automotive USA, and I support our FSAE/Formula Student sponsorship program. I’m a former FSAE student from Iowa State University (Cyclone Racing).

IPG Automotive’s headquarters is in Karlsruhe, Germany, but I work with our North American engineering and support office out of Ann Arbor, Michigan. We opened our doors at the beginning of 2016 and are starting to more formally support North American FSAE teams. In a nutshell, IPG has been around for many years in vehicle dynamics simulations and virtual test driving, in both automotive and motorsport markets. Our company was founded out of KIT in Karlsruhe, so we are passionate about university learning -- especially FSAE/Formula Student!

I don’t want to step on any other companies’ toes here, but I want to let students know about our Formula CarMaker sponsorship program we have at IPG. The program allows two of your team members free access to our software for one full season (our “season” runs October to October each year).

We just opened registration for the Formula CarMaker 2018 season this week, so I want to get the word out to many of the North American teams that view this forum. We have a very large subscription to this program with our European teams and we had around 8 North America teams last year – that number has grown to ~20 US/CAN teams in the first week of registration.

The software you gain access to is CarMaker and IPGKinematics, which are two complementary simulation packages, allowing you to design and simulate your suspension kinematics, then take it to full vehicle testing on any track layout you’d like.

CarMaker:
- Full Multibody Vehicle Simulation
- Internal Combustion, Hybrid, and Full Electric Powertrain Configurations
- Fully Customizable Driver Model, Including an Optimized Racing Driver
- Co-Simulation with Simulink Models
- Included Test Automation & Visualization Tools
- Cockpit Package for Driver-in-the-Loop Testing

IPGKinematics:
- Virtual Kinematics & Compliance Testing
- Kinematics & Compliance Data Export to CarMaker

More information and registration links can be found at the following:

https://ipg-automotive.com/company/research-teaching/

While I realize not all teams are ready or mature enough for full vehicle simulation, there are many applications where you can utilize CarMaker for your car’s design. CarMaker essentially gives you an environment you can test your car in before it ever hits the ground. This could be testing of different spring/damper/ARB combinations, weight distributions, vehicle layouts, powertrain types, control strategies, and more. If you don’t want to use our models for any part of the vehicle, you are free to replace it with your own Simulink, C/C++, or FMI models.

We encourage this with CarMaker, as modeling your subsystem is always the best way to learn about it before you finalize design and move to manufacturing. We provide many example models for Simulink torque vectoring, motor control, powertrain modeling, as well as other aspects of the vehicle, as many students model their systems and control strategies within Simulink.

For those of you who are not students, please do not derail this with negative discussions, as we are only trying to enable students, not give them an “easy” solution. Always keep in mind, that with this full vehicle testing, you are still responsible for knowing how the models work, whether they are IPG’s models or your own! If you don’t, the design judges will always call you out ;).

As a final note, we have offered Formula CarMaker workshops in Germany that give two of your team members a free day of training on our software. We do not yet have this set up in the US, as we are trying to evaluate a good location. To not conflict with other events post-competition, we could offer the workshop before Michigan and/or Lincoln competitions. There is also the possibility to offer one or two at different centralized or coastal locations that many teams can travel to. Feel free to give me your input on times and locations (i.e. how far you are willing to travel). Let me know if you have any questions!

- Kevin

[BillCobb]

I'd like to see what you can do with a base CarMaker package. By this I mean starting from a simple set of fundamental properties (axle weights, tire stiffnesses, wheelbase, inertias and a steer ratio). This is a sufficient startup for a team to learn to run test procedures, validate Math and get some understanding of fundamental vehicle dynamics (what causes what).

Then you would add nonlinear parametric items, subsystem effects and finally chassis part specific relationships or hardware part specific inventory.

This tactic follows in the same path as production engineering, with system models, lab testing, skid-pad road testing and road course investigations with a driver in the loop.

If this is your offering, bring it on! My recollection is that too often, these softwares require a department wide support group to measure, define, inventory and maintain the hundreds of vehicle model parts and functions. It's very challenging or impossible for students with only a few semesters to work on it.

[Kevin Riley]

Hi Bill,

Thanks for the response. I completely see where you are coming from, and yes you can do this within the CarMaker environment. You are able to fully replace the vehicle model with your own, whether it is very elementary or something more complex you've built on your own.

I am a huge proponent of learning with small simulations and tests first, then increasing complexity. This is why I said many teams may not be ready for full simulation, but there is still a good chance they can learn something with the tool. Not saying it's the best or only solution, just that it's available. In any case, it may be best to stay away from tools like CarMaker until your understanding of the vehicle and your own more simplified simulations have matured.

[BillCobb]

Kevin. Will you be at Testing Expo (Novi, MI) coming up next week?

[Kevin Riley]

Hi Bill,

No, I will not be at Test Expo, but other members of our US team will be. They will have some sort of display that will show our tools, and you can always ask them to show you a demo if you're curious.

Kevin

[BillCobb]

Tell them to have a FSAE car prep file handy to demo some simple things (maybe an ISO test procedure). Show how to properly engage CarMaker in the process of designing, developing, testing and running a racecar start to finish.

In all these Expo's, I have yet to see a product bloom from concept to final thing as a demo, showing all the steps, either as a presentation or as a show and tell. It's always "You could do all these things". (Please no double lane changes). But, can you treat it like a real car and ask it silly questions and make it perform, or is it another case of "this is (only) what it will do".

I'll be happy to describe a scenario, ask for some type of results, increase the complexity incrementally, and beg for the next round of findings. So often, the software maker has to guess the type of application their product will fit in with. Then the (real) car maker has to stretch the product to fit into it's own tool cabinet.

Or in the (in)-famous words of Frank Winchell Engineering V.P. at GM: "If it doesn't do what they say, can it crush grapes ?" (Because your career just ended and your next job might just be wine making). Would that be WineMaker ?

[DougMilliken]

Or in the (in)-famous words of Frank Winchell, Engineering V.P. at GM: "If it doesn't do what they say, can it crush grapes ?" (Because your career just ended and your next job might just be wine making). Would that be WineMaker ?

More likely whinemaker...

For more by Frank Winchell, read his version of the partnership between Jim Hall, Chaparral and Chevrolet Engineering -- in the history chapter in RCVD. Other Winchell stories in my father's autobiography, "Equations of Motion", Bentley Publishers.