Ford Motor Company has become the first North American automaker to toy with the Virtual Vehicle Sound Simulator as a way to fine-tune the sound inside a car before a prototype is made. This development is another example of how using virtual spaces for commercial purposes can save some of the time and costs involved with constructing physical, real-world prototypes, and builds on the work of Ford's visual engineers, who are using virtual reality and animation software to allow engineers to virtually sit in cars, pre-prototype.
The technology's ultimate goal is to decrease the noise inside of Ford cars, exploring how to lower vibrations, harshness and noise. It does this by having Ford employees sit in the virtual simulator wearing headphones, enabling the employee to calibrate the interior sound.
"We know sound inside a vehicle is a major factor in customer satisfaction," said Mark Clapper, technical leader for noise, vibration and harshness at Ford. "This is a major leap in technology that will provide Ford with a significant competitive advantage."
The simulator was built using software from the aerospace and video game industries. It allows engineers to explore all types of road conditions, a variety of speeds, and the sounds that result from changes in gear and throttle conditions. Right now, the company can simulate 76 different types of sounds using these factors alongside the virtual car's body shape and powertrain design.
"Sometimes what looks acceptable on a spreadsheet sounds bad once you actually hear it in real life, which is why simulating sound real-time and under real-world conditions helps us to weed out unpleasant sounds before our designs even make it to the drawing board," Clapper said.
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