Virtual Prototyping of Autonomy-Enabled Ground Systems (VIPR-GS)

Autonomous automotive technologies are changing economies and global industries – they are also a driving force behind military modernization. Bringing high-speed self-driving vehicles to life on- and off-road requires new concepts and algorithms to be tested expeditiously and cost-effectively – all of which happen through virtual prototyping.

The mission of the VIPR-GS Research Center is to develop innovative tools and methodologies for virtual prototyping and agile physical prototyping, enabled by research breakthroughs in off-road vehicle autonomy and vehicle propulsion, including smart management of fleet energy resources. The overarching goals are to provide new modeling and simulation capabilities, software tools and methodologies, as well as hardware demonstrations supporting GVSC’s research and development mandate, and driven by the needs of the Army’s NGCV program, one of the six top priorities of the U.S. Military.

There are three focal areas in the Center: autonomy for off-road vehicles in an unstructured environment, vehicle propulsion and fleet energy, and digital engineering. Models, algorithms, analytical capabilities and decision-making tools resulting from the research are evaluated by fabricating a physical mock-up of an optionally manned, non-combat, off-road ground vehicle. Discoveries and breakthrough innovations from the VIPR-GS Center research are fabricated and validated via Deep Orange, the University's long-running educational prototyping program, as a demonstrator and test bed for future research efforts.

The VIPR-GS Center's impact reaches beyond any single project by compressing the time needed for design and development in the autonomous space. Not only does this allow partners to significantly reduce timelines for innovation, but virtual prototyping enables new design capabilities that cut across industry sectors and applications.