Virtual tools for safety and ergonomic evaluations of electric vehicle architecture

Electric vehicles (EV's) are alternative fuel technology in auto industry with wide acceptance across globe. This paper elaborates virtual methods used to as tool for safety and ergonomic evaluations of in wheel design using Switch Reluctance Motor (SRM). In our recent research, a unique design of in wheel design using SRM has been developed. Special advantages of this design include modularity, scalability, cost effectiveness, and easy installation. Easy installation of in wheel design architecture is one of the prime criteria, since it relates to changing of tyres in long runs. In the proposed passenger car, if work is carried out for maintenance issues, generally single operator (mechanic) dose tyre changing or wheel/brake servicing. Two validations are important, mainly safety of the operator; secondly design for assembly of motor, and tyre rims. As a part of this research, Virtual Reality (VR) based safety and ergonomic evaluation studies have been conducted for the in wheel design adaptations. The computational models and virtual modelling simulations using motion capture, Arena and EON reality mimicked live system environments, so as to validate effectiveness motor assembly and disassembly functionality using human as an interface. Initial phase consists of schematic representations of models to evaluate conceptualisation for different designs. Based on schematics, SR motor and rim tyre models were developed and interfaced in VR environment. In second phase, vehicle topology was reverse engineered using hand held 3D scanner and converted to metafile for full scale model development. In third phase, motion capture was used with 20 camera systems to video record the existing human movements and rigid body such as tyre to develop live environment. Finally all three phases were interfaced together in VR environment to evaluate assembly and disassembly functions. Based on the validation of these, designs were fine tuned for effective assembly functionality. The VR based safety and ergonomic evaluation procedures were used for demonstration of wheel assembly disassembly functions by single operator. Similar context can be extended to other automotive design evaluations, without substantial prototype costs for safety and ergonomic evaluations