MRigney
03-24-03, 10:15 PM
DEARBORN, March 20 - Timing is everything when it comes to engineering a vehicle. When it came to the design and engineering of the Ford GT, time was scarce. Talent and technology were plentiful. With the help of Ford's cutting-edge Digital Occupant virtual reality software, the Ford GT team paved a path to the future using the innovative technology to help deliver the first production cars in record time.
Digital Occupant is best described as "the digital you in the digital car" and is a revolutionary step in visualization technology. Digital Occupant puts you inside a vehicle design and allows you to experience it firsthand in a virtual environment. It is fully configurable, allowing an individual to view the vehicle from the perspective of a diverse population of drivers that come in all different shapes and sizes.
"The real advantage of Digital Occupant is that it allows for engineers to appreciate the challenges in developing a spacious interior for a wide-range of statures," according to Kip Ewing, supervisor of package, prototype and launch for the Ford GT. "I could sit in the GT as a small-statured female and see how they would interact with controls, and what their field of view would be."
Digital Occupant tests include interior and exterior reach studies, vision studies, spatial placement of controls and displays for the driver and passengers, serviceability simulations and lift-gate studies. In the case of the Ford GT, accommodation and spatial studies were the most important due to its sleek performance styling.
The Digital Occupant simulation can represent a wide range consumer population with just one evaluator. The digital human can be the same size as the evaluator or scaled so that the digital figure is a much different size.
The short timeframe of Ford GT development was ideal for the Digital Occupant application. The software easily met the demands of the team, enabling engineers to make subjective evaluations much earlier in the design process. The team had the opportunity to evaluate more alternatives quicker through the use of real-time morphing of the virtual proposal. And the team made better selections of alternatives, which produced higher quality prototype builds.
The Ford GT relied on Digital Occupant more than most vehicle programs. "We only had a few months to engineer the vehicle and we really had to leverage computer-aided design tools to do as much work virtually as possible so that we could validate prototypes and get them right the first time," said Ewing. All Digital Occupant data was captured for playback in package and/or design reviews to cut down on design and development costs.
The Digital Occupant is one of several key digital tools the Ford GT is using to cut the number of prototype builds by 90 percent. The team also is uniquely organized as the their headquarters office in Allen Park, MI houses Ford engineers, key suppliers and a shop where early prototypes were built. This co-location of the relatively small team encourages ad-hoc meetings, often at a computer screen to view computer models, to resolve issues quickly.
This unique and highly motivated team skipped several early hardware prototype builds by testing the car more extensively on computers. The first Ford GT prototype was a fully drivable car that's currently being tested to tune the chassis systems. "We as engineers generally want to prove out computer models with physical prototypes," said John Coletti, Ford's director of Special Vehicle Team Programs. "We had to take a leap of faith with the Ford GT because we're not only building a supercar, we're looking at new ways of doing business."
Ford GT engineers ultimately will move on to larger, more mainstream programs and will be expected to spread lessons from this experience - especially their computer reliance and efficiency - more widely in the company.
After official approval in May 2002, the Ford GT has been on the fast track to break records for product development timing. One year later, Ford will help commemorate its Centennial by unveiling the first three production Ford GTs in June 2003. The three vehicles honor the magical podium sweep by Ford GT40s at the 1966 24 Hours of LeMans race.
In the spring of 2004, Ford will begin full Ford GT production with plans to produce about 1,500 of the supercars per year over the course of the program. The car will carry an MSRP of under $150,000, final pricing will be announced closer to full production.
In November 1999, the first Digital Occupant pilot was conducted with a team from Jaguar. The formal rollout began in the first quarter of 2001. The technology is available to virtually every Ford Motor Company vehicle.
More news on the way...
Digital Occupant is best described as "the digital you in the digital car" and is a revolutionary step in visualization technology. Digital Occupant puts you inside a vehicle design and allows you to experience it firsthand in a virtual environment. It is fully configurable, allowing an individual to view the vehicle from the perspective of a diverse population of drivers that come in all different shapes and sizes.
"The real advantage of Digital Occupant is that it allows for engineers to appreciate the challenges in developing a spacious interior for a wide-range of statures," according to Kip Ewing, supervisor of package, prototype and launch for the Ford GT. "I could sit in the GT as a small-statured female and see how they would interact with controls, and what their field of view would be."
Digital Occupant tests include interior and exterior reach studies, vision studies, spatial placement of controls and displays for the driver and passengers, serviceability simulations and lift-gate studies. In the case of the Ford GT, accommodation and spatial studies were the most important due to its sleek performance styling.
The Digital Occupant simulation can represent a wide range consumer population with just one evaluator. The digital human can be the same size as the evaluator or scaled so that the digital figure is a much different size.
The short timeframe of Ford GT development was ideal for the Digital Occupant application. The software easily met the demands of the team, enabling engineers to make subjective evaluations much earlier in the design process. The team had the opportunity to evaluate more alternatives quicker through the use of real-time morphing of the virtual proposal. And the team made better selections of alternatives, which produced higher quality prototype builds.
The Ford GT relied on Digital Occupant more than most vehicle programs. "We only had a few months to engineer the vehicle and we really had to leverage computer-aided design tools to do as much work virtually as possible so that we could validate prototypes and get them right the first time," said Ewing. All Digital Occupant data was captured for playback in package and/or design reviews to cut down on design and development costs.
The Digital Occupant is one of several key digital tools the Ford GT is using to cut the number of prototype builds by 90 percent. The team also is uniquely organized as the their headquarters office in Allen Park, MI houses Ford engineers, key suppliers and a shop where early prototypes were built. This co-location of the relatively small team encourages ad-hoc meetings, often at a computer screen to view computer models, to resolve issues quickly.
This unique and highly motivated team skipped several early hardware prototype builds by testing the car more extensively on computers. The first Ford GT prototype was a fully drivable car that's currently being tested to tune the chassis systems. "We as engineers generally want to prove out computer models with physical prototypes," said John Coletti, Ford's director of Special Vehicle Team Programs. "We had to take a leap of faith with the Ford GT because we're not only building a supercar, we're looking at new ways of doing business."
Ford GT engineers ultimately will move on to larger, more mainstream programs and will be expected to spread lessons from this experience - especially their computer reliance and efficiency - more widely in the company.
After official approval in May 2002, the Ford GT has been on the fast track to break records for product development timing. One year later, Ford will help commemorate its Centennial by unveiling the first three production Ford GTs in June 2003. The three vehicles honor the magical podium sweep by Ford GT40s at the 1966 24 Hours of LeMans race.
In the spring of 2004, Ford will begin full Ford GT production with plans to produce about 1,500 of the supercars per year over the course of the program. The car will carry an MSRP of under $150,000, final pricing will be announced closer to full production.
In November 1999, the first Digital Occupant pilot was conducted with a team from Jaguar. The formal rollout began in the first quarter of 2001. The technology is available to virtually every Ford Motor Company vehicle.
More news on the way...