VMC Virtual Measurement Campaign

Since several years, the department MDF at Fraunhofer ITWM is investigating the analysis of geo-referenced data to support and improve the derivation of design loads as well as the assessment of energy efficiency by statistical reasoning.

The approach is mainly motivated by the desire to understand usage variability and the resulting scatter in loads or fuel consumption and to provide methods for making use of that information within vehicle development. This is of special importance for commercial vehicle fleets in different markets.

»Virtual Measurement Campaign«

An implementation of the VMC concept for application in the truck industry has been supported by a joint project with the truck manufacturers DAF-Trucks, Daimler, MAN Nutzfahrzeuge, SCANIA, and Volvo Trucks.

An application of that technology was, among others, executed in a common project with Volkswagen Nutzfahrzeuge and reported during the VDI conference Commercial Vehicles 2015 in Eindhoven. In this case, the planning of the campaign and the derivation of usage parameters was supported by VMC GeoStatistics, the measured data were evaluated using VMC GeoLDA and extrapolated to load distributions using U·Sim.

Because of the rapidly growing availability of potentially relevant data such as traffic density and because of upcoming new requirements with respect to specific applications, we are continuously developing and extending the database as well as the collection of methods.

The activities within the VMC framework are organized in the modules:

VMC® GeoStatistics

Provision and analysis of geo-referenced data for the analysis of regions and routes.

VMC® GeoLDA

Enhancing measured data on public roads by mapping the data to the road network, segmentation and classification.

VMC® Simulation

Application of simple vehicle substitute models to estimate the longitudinal, lateral, and vertical dynamics in the virtual environment.

Burger, M.; Speckert, M.; Dreßler, K.:
Nutzungsspezifische Vorhersage von Beanspruchung und Energieverbrauch.
In: SIMVEC – Simulation und Erprobung in der Fahrzeugentwicklung, VDI-Bericht 2333 (2018), pp. 781-793, ISBN: 978-3-18-092333-8.
Biedinger, C.; Weyh, T.; Opalinski, A.; Wagner, M.:
Simulation of customer-specific vehicle usage.
In: 4th Commercial Vehicle Technology Symposium, CVT 2016 Proceedings, pp. 523-532, ISBN: 978-3-8440-4229-0.
Speckert, M.; Dreßler, K.; Ruf, N.; Halfmann, T.; Polanski, S.:
The Virtual Measurement Campaign (VMC) concept – A methodology for geo-referenced description and evaluation of environmental conditions for vehicle loads and energy efficiency
In: 3rd Commercial Vehicle Technology Symposium, CVT 2014 Proceedings, pp. 88-98, ISBN: 978-3-8440-2573-6.
Speckert, M.; Lübke, M.; Wagner, B.; Anstötz, T.; Haupt, C.:
Representative road selection and route planning for commercial vehicle development.
5th Commercial Vehicle Technology Symposium, CVT 2018 Proceedings, pp. 117-128, ISBN: 978-3-658-21300-8
Weyh, T.; Speckert, M.; Opalinski, A.; Wagner, M.:
Planning a measurement campaign in Eastern Europe using Fraunhofer VMC ("Virtual Measurement Campaign").
13. International Conference Commercial Vehicles 2015 : Truck, Bus, Van, Trailer, VDI-Berichte 2247, pp. 207-218, ISBN: 978-3-18-092247-8

Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics ITWM

Geo-referenced Analysis and Virtual Measurement Campaign (VMC®)