Vehicle Testing with Flat Surface Roadway Technology

MTS Systems has built and operated a vehicle test system called the Flat-Trac® Roadway Simulator. The system measures the handling characteristics of a running automobile while holding it stationary in a laboratory. The system can also test the vibration and durability characteristics of an automobile due to driving on rough roads by moving the surface beneath each tire vertically. The automobile is driven as on the road with the machine providing relative motion by moving a flat surface beneath each tire. This paper presents the results of operating a vehicle on the system with a rough road simulated during maneuvering.