Chassis Modeling for Driving Behavior Analysis Using 3D Scans

Full-vehicle test benches are used for the development and validation of vehicle functions or components. To obtain realistic results, the vehicle’s (sub)systems and the surrounding environment must be simulated in a suitable simulation environment on the test bench. One relevant subsystem to many studies is the chassis, which behaves differently on the test bench due to the absence of spatial accelerations. However, the relevant information for simulating the chassis is often known only to the manufacturers. To address this challenge, this publication presents a method for obtaining a reliable kinematic model of the chassis. The chassis is captured using a 3D scanner, allowing relevant hard points to be determined. Using IPGKinematics, wheel travel curves are extracted from these hard points for simulations in CarMaker. The simulation results were validated against real-world driving maneuvers performed with the vehicle under test. The comparison shows a high level of accuracy despite some simplifications in the simulation. The presented method can therefore be considered valid. To further validate the method, various potentials are discussed and possible extensions are presented.