Essais & Simulations n° 138

DOSSIER AUTO MOTIVE

DOSSIER AUTO MOTIVE INTERVIEW Safety, connectivity and reliability ... the challenges of the autonomous vehicle ln this interview, Jean-Marc Petit, Business Development Manager at Comsol France, explains how digital simulation is now the key to meeting the many challenges posed by the autonomous vehicle to the automotive industry. But the stakes are also social and human ... Jean-Marc Petit Business Development Manager at Comsol France HOW DOES THE AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE REVOLUTIONIZE THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY? Clearly, that means the automotive industry will deliver a completely different product, where users will become only consumers, and no more actors of the driving as they were before. Of course this leads to a huge responsibility for the automotive makers, and a high level of reliability, which means a deep change in their industrial processes. In some parts level of error will have to decrease to zero. WHAT ARE THE IMPACTS ON MANUFACTURERS' ACTIVITIES IN TERMS OF DESIGN AND TESTING? To reach a high level of quality and safety, a quite systematic testing of ail the product life in numerous cases will become the standard, and this will increase the need for a very efficient integration of all steps from the very beginning and during all the product life. For instance, taking in account current feedbacks in the flow of design and making processes. Or constantly adapt the testing to new situations. Design will have to take in account integration of many different dimensions, which were studied separately up to now. For instance think about vision, acoustic and vibrations: if you suppress all external noisy signais for a more comfortable user experience, how do you filter and prepare the body of the passengers to a sharp braking? HOW CAN DIGITAL SIMULATION MEET THE CHALLENGES OF AUTOMAKERS? The main advantage of simulation, compared to real measurements, is to increase by a huge factor the numbers of test cases. Virtually this depends only of your computing resources. Of course I assume you validated at first your modeling, so that you corne to a sort of digital twin of your product. Another advantage is you are able to couple or not almost ail physics involved, and to better understand how they interact and influence results. This better understanding leads to a more robust design. And last but not least the digital tools may be used by all people involved in the designing, testing and making processes, even the commercial guys. For instance to finely adjust the presales choices of the customer, without any physical trial! AS A SIMULATION SOF TWARE PUBLISHER, HAVE VOU ALREADY DEVELOPED SOLUTIONS THAT ADDRESS THE ISSUES RAISED BY THE AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE? Most of what I described above is already a reality for years in our software: the ability to simulate one or several physics, coupled or not and to create on demands simplified interfaces, what we call applications, 54 IESSAIS & SIMULATIONS• N ° 138 • Septembre - Octobre 2019

DOSSIER AUTO MOTIVE for a very large use of the simulation tools inside and outside the company. Clearly the last point is a key point : once we have said numerical tools are the key to address this incredible challenge, the main limitation is the human power. Not so many people have the expertise to mode! and simulate, which means the only way to increase the use of these sophisticated digital tools is to allow them to produce quickly easy to use interfaces for specific needs of their colleagues and clients. METRAVIB nos talents vous accompagnent WHAT ARE THESE ISSUES, 80TH IN TERMS OF THE SAFETY OF THE DRIVER, PASSENGERS AND OTHER ROAD USERS? I can see two main issues: one coming from the limitations of the digital twin and the other from the complexity of the systems you elaborate in order to face this situation. In other words, modeling means that you filter and reduce in some ways the reality, which means there are cases you haven't think ahead and that's a risk. Moreover what do you know about the weaknesses of an artificial system to replace the human brain? IN ADDITION TO SAFETY, WHAT ARE THE OTHER CHALLENGES OF THE AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE THAT DIGITAL SIMULATION CAN HELP TO MEET? One of this challenge addressed to digital simulation is the connectivity and reliability of ail different systems to work together. How vibrations coming from the road affect the sensitivity of a pressure sensor inside a tire and its ability to convey an RF signal to the central computer? In fact most of the technical challenges concerning the vehide are already addressed by simulation, for instance about the use of electrical battery. But there is still a domain where simulation has to prove and increase its interest: it's about the interaction between the autonomous vehide and the human users. • Comments collected by Olivier Guillon Ensemble. réalisons les projets les plus ambitieux. Co-développement et aide à la conception Ingénierie en vibration. acoustique et matériaux. ) metravib Simulation of a transmission-reception antenna for a vehicle ACOEM Group metravib.com ESSAIS &SIMULATIONS• N ° 138 • Septembre - Octobre 2019155