The organisation of the development process and the adequate use of both virtual and real test methods in this process is a core competency of each OEM. Together with several OEMs, the Chair for Automotive Engineering is working on the improvement of sub-processes, particularily in the field of virtual methods. The Experimental Handling Vehicle is one of these projects. A big share of the design and the dimensioning of this cars body and chassis has been carried out by using virtual tools. Another aspect of these projects is the integration of the improved methods into the OEM´s processes. The driving simulator for instance has been integrated into the development process of a truck manufacturer to test and validate Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) an the Man-Machine-Inteface (MMI). For this reason it is essential, to know about the assets and shortcomings of a tool, in order to provide valid results and and define a save combination of real and virtual test methods.

The drivers control task gets more and more complex at today’s road traffic. Supported by sophisticated control and assistance systems, the driver is able to focus on the basic driving task.
The field of research includes automatic controller calibration, design of fault-tolerant controller concepts and development of advanced state observers.
The research projects use a wide range of simulation techniques accessible at FTM e.g. offline Simulation; Model-, Software- or Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation; MKS-Simulation; …

The dynamic behaviour of vehicles is an important part of the active vehicle safety. Any given vehicle, together with its driver and the prevailing environment, constitutes a unique closed-loop system.
The field of research at FTM focus on rating the vehicle performance by simulation methods and on developing new chassis concepts.

Mobile machines are universal vehicles with additional equipment for working processes of the fields transportation-, construction-, country - and forest-industry and municipal purposes as well as special machines. Besides general questions the special topic areas worked on are automation of agricultural processes, conception, regulation and optimization of hydraulics of stepless transmissions (in particular with chain transducer) as well as communication in controller networks.

Since the number of assisting and information systems in the car has continuously increased, so has the need for adequate handling and display concepts. Only a user-friendly presentation of the man-machine interface will avoid an excessive demand placed on the driver, and will make the acceptance of these systems more likely.

The research consists of questions concerning driving behaviour, concentration, ergonomics and intuitively understandable vehicle handling. The development includes, amongst other things, subject tests, which are conducted through real driving tests or through the dynamic driving simulator.