Cruden’s open-architecture Panthera software suite has been selected by Prema Racing to transform its existing driving simulator hardware by enabling more complex race car setup and development work. The company is the latest race team to opt to upgrade rather than invest in completely new simulator hardware.
Engineers at the Italian motorsport team analyse data generated by the simulator to help optimize car setups and build the experience of young drivers in Formula 4, Formula 3 and Formula 2. The project has involved integrating the team’s hardware and setting up the Cruden Simulink Vehicle Model (CSVM).
Guillaume Capietto, technical director at Prema Racing, said, “Our previous simulator was reasonably good for driver training and track learning, but it wasn’t realistic enough to be used for car development or setup optimization and was not really open to development by our own engineers. But the hardware we had was good, so we decided to make better use of its capabilities with new software.
“Panthera will give us better platform cueing to improve driver immersion; better performing and more efficient image rendering and a higher display frequency; better control of steering force feedback and belt-tensioner cueing; more realistic car and tire models; and better correlation between simulation and real driving.
“Our aim is to have a multibody car model which allows us to measure and improve our understanding of setup changes, and to develop our tire model in order to assess data on tire preparation, thermal behavior and wear.”
Panthera is a standalone open-architecture software with a flexible and modular setup, for use with any existing or new simulator and with all vehicle models.
CSVM is a true multibody vehicle model created in MATLAB Simulink. With support from a Cruden senior vehicle dynamist, the Prema engineers are working on adapting CSVM to match the new 2018 F2 car.
