What We Do
We explore fast and revolutionary methods of vehicle system design and integration to accelerate research toward cars that are both safer and more fun to drive. To achieve this, our team integrates new hardware and software into vehicle platforms and operates field tests to maximize the velocity of core software research. We’re also exploring novel research platforms that allow us to rapidly test new ideas about vehicle dynamics and control for future mobilities.
Our team develops new hardware and software platforms that enable collaboration with other research teams in Human Interactive Driving, helping researchers explore and unlock more research opportunities.
Our solutions have two main approaches to achieving our mission. One is to build vehicle platforms optimized for high-dynamic driving, such as drifting or track driving, based on a sports car chassis. The other is to develop general-purpose, easily updatable platforms that can tackle future unpredictable research challenges with minimal updates in cost, time, and resources.
Our customers are research teams within the Human Interactive Driving Division and manufacturing engineering teams in Toyota Motor Corporation.
The Challenges
Establishing hardware and software infrastructure fundamentally takes more time than agile software development. Our team needs to anticipate future research needs and prepare these platforms in advance to avoid slowing down research activities.
Platform Research Projects
GRIP
Global Research Innovation Platform (GRIP) is a platform that is easy to modify and flexible, serving as a driveable test bench to accelerate research in novel human-AI interactions. GRIP has many forward-looking capabilities - in-hub electric motors, 4-wheel steering, and by-wire systems.
Motion Simulator Platforms
Simulators are powerful tools that allow us to accelerate research into discovering better human models. We use simulators to measure many signals, such as vehicle state, gazing, etc., and create realistic environments to obtain the most relevant human responses. To meet our research demands, we developed two different platforms.
One is the Driver-in-the-Loop (DIL) Motion Simulator, an immersive installation featuring a 250-degree, 26-foot diameter screen, a five-channel 4k projection system, a six-degree-of-freedom motion base, and a custom flexible vehicle cabin. The other is a compact cockpit simulator, of which we have multiple installations to increase our ability to run tests and collect data. Both operate on a modular, extensible simulator software based on open-source technology to create an unparalleled level of customization in the simulation.
