SAE 2001: Three Companies Collaborate to Form SmartSim

MTS Systems Corp., Mechanical Dynamics and nCode International announce the formation of the SmartSim Community to expedite the process of design to production for the auto industry and to promote data sharing. By integrating physical and virtual testing, SmartSim reduces the time, cost and risk normally associated with new vehicle design and development.

SmartSim brings together the proving ground, physical laboratory tests and virtual models created on a computer to simulate conditions found in the real world. However, it is significantly less time consuming than actual testing. "The automotive industry faces many challenges including executing product development programs across a global supplier chain in eighteen months or less. The tight integration of the various performance evaluation tools and open standards required to do this has not been available until now," says a SmartSim official.

The SmartSim collaboration has already resulted in new products being used today, including Empirical Dynamics modeling (EDM), Virtual Test Laboratory (VTL), RPC Pro, featuring nCode technology, and ADAMS/Durability. ADAMS virtual prototypes technology, a Mechanical Dynamics/nCode co-development, has been used to test durability of the new Orion VII bus. Orion Bus Industries supplies 100% of the buses used in New York.