PRESNENTING THE RESULTS OF VEHICLE DYNAMICS SIMULATION IN VIRTUAL 3D ENVIRONMENT 2001-06-0196

Results of simulations done by mathematical models of driving dynamics have to be presented in a clear and appealing way. One possibility of this is presentation by means of animation in virtual 3D environment. For the mathematical model of control and riding dynamics of road vehicles, developed at CEMEK, University of Ljubljana, a library of low-polygon 3D geometrical vehicle models is being built. Animations are written in VRML2 and are composed of mathematical model output data, vehicle geometry and animation core. We have developed software to compose the animations, write them programmatically and display the results in virtual 3D environment. The required vehicle-specific input data is retrieved from an existing vehicle database. Currently, the mathematical model simulates riding control and riding dynamics, and deals with vehicles as systems of rigid bodies. The flexible structure of software for writing animations and of the animation core itself provides easy adaptation to possible future expansions of the mathematical model.