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Ford Motor Company Drives its Design with CrystalEyes From StereoGraphics
Automotive production is a multi-billion dollar business where competitiveness is often measured in time-to-market efficiency. In an effort to design better-made cars while reducing time-to-market, Ford Motor Company has employed high-performance Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) tools. To completely understand the effectiveness of a new design, both numerical and visual analyses are required. While Ford employs supercomputers to perform the numerical part of the problem, it relies on 3D visualization and StereoGraphics CrystalEyes to more adequately understand the multidimensional data so critical to building better cars. Analyzing these virtual vehicles in stereoscopic 3D saves Ford much of the cost associated with building physical prototypes prior to production and also reduces the company’s time-to-market. “At Ford, we display great amounts of data graphically and visually,” said Mike Stoeckle, Ford design engineer. “We need CrystalEyes to see what’s going on.” The Ford Motor Company is among the largest automakers in the world with more than $110-billion in auto sales in 1995. At Ford Motor Company’s Advanced Research and Engineering Center in Dearborn, MI, engineers are designing cars today that we will drive in coming years. As with all major auto manufacturers worldwide, Ford’s design process relies heavily on computer technology to yield the best possible product. CAE helps Ford deliver on its design objectives while speeding time to market an producing higher-quality cars. Three critical areas are prominent for designers using CAE: safety, ride quality and package design. Visualizing the Problem: The Ford CAE process can be broken down into two basic steps. First, data is analyzed on a supercomputer or high-powered workstation. The resulting numerical analysis gives Ford designers initial information as to the efficacy of a design exercise. The next step is referred to as post-engineering analysis which uses visual and graphical information to show the designers what the raw numerical data does not. There are three basic examples of how this is carried out. To improve the safety systems of its vehicles, Ford uses CAE as a way to crash-test its cars. A simulated crash is performed on the computer using virtual models of an automobile and occupant. The data determines the basic result of the crash, but Ford will then import the raw data and visualize result on a graphics workstation. This visualization allows Ford to see the relationship between parts of a vehicle’s interior and its occupant as a crash takes place. The company’s designers can also perform noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) testing the same way. Road conditions are simulated and an analysis is done on interior NVH. However, engineers can’t design around any problem spots without first visually identifying them with a graphical simulation. Similarly, Ford will analyze its package design to be certain that all powertrain, interior, suspension and accessory items will work together without interference when subjected to a wide variety of road and driving conditions. Again, it is the visual analysis that identifies problem areas and indicates what changes have to be made. One problem still remains. Ford is visualizing so much complex, multidimensional visual information that a typical 2D view can’t adequately tell design engineers what they need to know. As the number of polygons or visual elements increased in each of the company’s simulations, visual analysis became substantially more complicated and confusing. “We view data files with anywhere from 50-thousand to 500-thousand visual elements,” said Brian Kachnowski, software engineer for Ford. “The models are very complex, and when they exceed 100-thousand elements, they become too complex for a 2D view. Stereo viewing helps untangle these elements.” Stereoscopic Viewing - How CrystalEyes works: The effect of three-dimensionality is a combination of what the human eye sees and the brain process. The distance between human eyes results in each eye seeing an image from a slightly different perspective. The brain interprets information from these two perspectives to create the perception of three dimensions, an effect known as stereopsis. CrystalEyes relies on the same stereoscopic principle. The product works with the user’s computer display and software to separate left-eye and right-eye-specific images using liquid crystal shutters. These shutters operate in sequence with the independent left/right-eye views to create the illusion that on-screen objects have depth and presence in three dimensional space. An emitter transmits synchronized pulses of infrared signals that are received by CrystalEyes eyewear. In effect, CrystalEyes eyewear produces stereopsis by electronically replicating the way people view their surroundings in the real world delivering crisp stereo 3D images without ghosting or double image artifacts. Alternately displaying left- and right-eye perspectives on a standard workstation monitor solves a major problem of the past: true control of the Z-axis necessary for displaying realistic 3D images. For remote manipulation and viewing of objects, stereo 3D gives the user control, along all axes including the z-axis, or depth, of changes made to a structure on the screen. This ability to view objects in realistic stereo 3D and manipulate the object view is critical to the analysis of all of Ford’s CAE activities. “CrystalEyes helps us define the spatial relationships between different parts,” said Dave Henderson, computer applications engineer for Ford Motor Company. “When a vehicle crashes, we can now see what elements move closer or further away from an occupant.” Visualizing the relative position of these widely varying elements during a crash helps engineers determine the placement of safety devices. The Solution: As the polygon count continued to increase in Ford’s visual analyses, a solution for viewing these simulations in 3D became more vital. Ford required its solution to be cost-effective, cross-platform, easily integrated with existing systems and simple for engineers to use. With a broad combination of UNIX workstations on-hand, including those from SGI, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard and IBM, finding a workable solution appeared difficult. Fortunately, StereoGraphics CrystalEyes is compatible with all of those computers as well as with Windows NT and Digital Equipment, should users need to leverage those platforms as well. Not only was the product easy to use, but surprisingly effective. Crash testing an automobile in a digital environment is hardly a simple process. There may be hundreds of thousands of elements all reacting to an impact. These reactions also vary greatly based on speed, vehicle direction and location of the impact. “We get a better feel for how an airbag envelopes the head of a crash-test dummy and which parts of the body are moving which direction as a result of the crash,” continued Henderson. “The whole process would take longer in 2D. Without 3D, engineers don’t get a natural view of the objects they’re looking at.” The same can be said for engineers performing NVH simulations. It’s our job to model and analyze a car before prototypes are ever built,” said Stoeckle. “We have to lead the vehicle design process to be effective.” Stoeckle can define a myriad of different road and driving conditions that imitate real-world situations. Based on these he can see how the steering wheel will vibrate or the seat will shake by literally climbing inside the car using CrystalEyes. By rotating and moving the model, he can also see the suspension and interior of a car simultaneously, allowing for more accurate analysis of simulation data. “We deal with visual data sets so large that it’s impossible to understand them without stereo,” continued Stoeckle. “Turn stereo on and it suddenly makes much more sense. We can then engineer around problems that we find before a prototype is ever built.” Ford has also been able to leverage CrystalEyes’ visualization capabilities to more quickly attain the high levels of vehicle quality they demand. When a new vehicle design is ready to be prototyped, a package design analysis is performed first. This entails creating a computer model representation of the vehicle, which is displayed in stereo using CrystalEyes. The model is then subjected to a wide variety of external stresses to simulate different driving situations. The limits of suspension travel are tested as well as the physical relationship between different components of the vehicle. These are viewed by designers to assure compatibility between all of the car’s components. Every compartment and its trim items can be analyzed visually to detect possible conflicts. If interference is detected between items, the design can be altered before a physical prototype is created. The use of CrystalEyes had benefits not foreseen by Ford designers. According to Stoeckle, a key factor in successful auto design is effectively communicating ideas about improvements and recommended changes to program managers, project leaders and vehicle developers. With CrystalEyes, it became much simpler to demonstrate recommended changes in real-time and in real-space, rather than using a 2D model or describing the change as an abstract concept. The net benefit, whether a crash-test, NVH, or package study is conducted is a dramatic increase in the effectiveness of engineers’ and designers’ analysis of simulation data when CrystalEyes is used. Ford’s time-to-market is reduced for new developments, while saving the company money by eliminating the possibility of not discovering faults until a physical prototype is built. “Without CrystalEyes, you don’t get as clear a picture,” said Stoeckle. “Now, we can see how all of a vehicle’s components work together.” |
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