Research On The Virtual Experiment System For Vehicle Based On VR

The virtual reality (VR) technology is an advanced computer technology that has developed tremendously in recent years. The virtual reality technology has three main characteristics that are interaction, immersion and imagination. Due to these characteristics, it is widely applied in many domains, such as industry, military, medical service and education program and so on.The main research of the paper is focused on the development of virtual experiment system for vehicle with the help of virtual reality. The traditional automobile experiment has some disadvantages, such as long time-consuming, much risk and investment. Therefore, with the project supported by the Xi Hua University scientific research fund, a desktop virtual reality system has been developed based on VR technology and the relevant automobile dynamics model. The motion of vehicle under various running conditions can be simulated with the application of the virtual experiment system based on the convenience of the visualization of VR and the effectiveness of human-machine interaction. It provides a new platform and method for product developing and confirming, performance analyzing and evaluating with the parameters resulting from the virtual experiment system. Although the virtual experiments for vehicle can not take the place of the experiments of real vehicle completely, it possesses many advantages, such as fund saving, danger decreasing, easy repetition and understanding when compared with the traditional experiments of real vehicle. It not only can be used for the performance analysis of entire vehicle, but also for the subsystems. It is important both on theoretical research and practice in the development of the virtual experiment of vehicle with the application of VR technology.The main work of this paper can be summarized as the following:1) A desktop virtual reality system has been developed. The system can carry on the virtual experiments of vehicle and realize the human-machine interaction easily. It can also satisfy the real time need of the virtual system and verisimilitude.2) A vehicle dynamic model has been developed. A vehicle dynamic model with 8 degrees of freedom has been developed with the consideration of practice. The engine model, tire model and a series of sub-models have been developed too. These models have been built and simulated with the application of the MATLAB/Simulink platform.3) The virtual scene has been established with the virtual reality modeling language (VRML). According to the requirements of vehicle experiments, the virtual car, virtual road, virtual scenery such as trees and buildings are also built in the virtual scene.4) The human-machine interaction and the replay of the experiment process have been realized. It can carry on the automobile virtual proving. The operator can control the virtual car in the virtual sense by the human-machine interaction. The function of replaying the experiment process can make the understanding of vehicle performance easy.5) The results from the virtual experiments are analyzed for understanding and improving the performance of the vehicle. The results of the parameters of vehicle in the experiment can be collected and plotted by curves by the requirements. These results can provided more information for the further research on the performance of the vehicle.Finally, a summary is given to the current research work. Although the basic frame of desktop virtual experiment system for vehicle is developed and can carry on some vehicle experiments, the system is needed for the further development when it is applied into practice more effectively and there are much works left to the further research. Because the virtual reality technology is an emerging and challenging technology, the application of VR in vehicle experiments is very wide and innovative.