Abstract

The necessity of increasing speed and a higher level of maturity during the development process of future cars requires a significant contribution of virtual development. Nevertheless, the human factor retains a key role and its acceptance contributes significantly to the success of future vehicle properties and ADAS/AD functions. Therefore, neither a fully physical nor a fully digital method will lead to the desired result, but a hybrid method combines the advantages of both worlds. While simulation models help the developer to identify the best concept out of millions of variants and optimize the chosen one, a compact and function-based driving simulator enables the experience of those simulations directly at the engineer's workplace. Like a personal computer, the personal driving simulator has to provide a single system for various use cases by using a modular software and hardware architecture. On the hardware side, this results in the requirement for interchangeability of the different HMI components like steering wheel, pedals, buttons, or driver seat as well as adjustable vehicle ergonomics. The software continues this flexibility with a middleware-based co-simulation approach, which offers the possibility to couple models of different domains and various software tools. Finally, the hybrid prototype is build by merging this digital prototype with the simulator and its hardware components. This enables digital vehicle functions to be evaluated in a hybrid twin and be experienced in real-time.