- Just opened: Most advanced light testing centre with a realistic country road replica
- Robots at the wheel: Fully automated endurance testing on a demanding rough-road track
- ‘Digital twin’: All test modules can also be used digitally for preliminary simulations
- A world of testing in Immendingen: Over 30 modules across 86 kilometres of road-simulating track
- Animal helpers: Sheep prevent scrub encroachment, llamas protect the herd
- Anniversary: Ten years ago, the ground-breaking ceremony for this unique development environment took place
With the new, state-of-the-art light testing centre, designed for versatile use, Mercedes‑Benz is once again expanding the diverse testing capabilities of the Global Proving Ground Immendingen. At 135 metres long and eight metres high, the new light testing centre ranks among the largest of its kind in the automotive industry. It enables detailed testing of headlight systems under constant, reproducible conditions – independent of time of day, weather or environmental influences.
A complete country road is authentically recreated over 135 metres. In addition, the asphalt mixture was specially developed to replicate the reflective properties of an aged road as closely as possible. Up to five cars can be tested in parallel – including the simulation of oncoming traffic or vehicles ahead. Reflector posts can be deployed at the sides of the road in 20-metre increments and pedestrian dummies can also be flexibly integrated. The investment in the light testing centre amounts to 10.5 million euros, with a construction period of two years.
Automation meets resilience: Driverless Heide durability circuit
With its high-tech testing facilities and advanced testing methods, the Global Proving Ground Immendingen continues to set new standards across the industry. This also includes the so-called automated Heide durability circuit. In this test, driving robots steer the test vehicles completely autonomously along a rough-road track. The track’s potholes, bumps and cobblestones pose a particular challenge for the chassis and body.
The automation of this process increases the precision of driving manoeuvres, reduces the strain on human test drivers, enables 24/7 operation and significantly accelerates testing – all while maintaining the same level of stress on the cars. Depending on the vehicle type, the test vehicles must complete up to 6,000 kilometres on this circuit, which is equivalent to 300,000 kilometres of customer driving. This means that one kilometre on the Heide durability circuit is equivalent to 150 kilometres on an extremely poor road, littered with deep potholes, among other things. The test module is named after a very challenging rough-road track in the Lüneburg Heath dating back to the 1950s.
Consistent digitisation: more efficient, faster and more sustainable testing
As with all test modules at Immendingen, the Heide durability circuit also has a “digital twin”. The proving ground is digitally mapped down to the sub-millimeter level, and vehicles and their loads are digitally mirrored. This data is used in preliminary simulations, serves as load spectra for test benches and thus enables test results to be quickly fed back to the development departments. Today, this digital testing is so precise that often many thousands of kilometres are driven digitally before the first real test kilometre is driven on the test site.
In concrete terms, this means that, for example, in chassis tuning for each new model series, more than 100 different variations are tested digitally. Only the most suitable variants are then installed in a prototype and tested physically in Immendingen. One of Immendingen’s greatest advantages is precisely this: almost all test requirements for real-life testing – apart from snow, ice and extreme heat – are consolidated at a single location.
“The Immendingen Test and Technology Centre is the first digitised Mercedes‑Benz proving ground – here, real and virtual vehicle testing merge seamlessly. By digitally mapping the proving ground, using automated test programmes and employing state-of-the-art sensor technology, we are making vehicle development more efficient, faster and more sustainable than ever before.”
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