Cruden motion simulators now available in Australia

Cruden, designer and manufacturer of interactive motion-based racing simulators, has set up an Australian office to help Asia-Pacific’s automotive, motorsport, defence, mining and civil engineering markets exploit the latest affordable simulation technology. The Melbourne operation will bring the company’s simulators to automotive, motorsport and mining companies, organisations delivering driver training and those conducting research for the motor industry and civil engineering projects. The operation is headed up by Roy Park, a simulation expert with over 25 years’ experience designing, manufacturing and servicing advanced motion control systems in Australia, Singapore, Korea and China.

“Cruden’s strategic expansion into the Asia-Pacific region reflects the growing adoption of simulators by automotive Tier One suppliers, OEM regional technical centres and motorsport formulae outside of Formula 1. It is also a response to the demand for more sophisticated motion systems in simulators for the defence and mining industries,” says Frank Kalff, Cruden’s commercial director. “As the technology becomes affordable and vehicle and road-modelling improves, Cruden’s professional simulators are now within the reach of new markets as a viable testing tool to help reduce costs and speed up development time. We are now ideally placed to serve customers globally.”

Cruden’s background is in-flight simulation and its current range of Hexatech simulators has been developed for the most technically challenging environment of Formula 1. Applications for its simulation technology include vehicle, component and parameter testing - where simulators can be an alternative to building costly prototypes - driver appraisal and coaching; race strategy formation; competitor assessment and benchmarking; engineer training; and driver behaviour analysis. Cruden is at the forefront of motion science and software development, providing solutions - such as a standalone steering system for fixed base simulation systems for lower budget race teams and an external physics package which allows vehicle engineers to use the company’s simulators by automatically ‘plugging in’ their own vehicle models - to suit its diverse customer base.

“Cruden’s success in the area of vehicle development and testing is well known, with outfits such as Wirth Research in the UK using a Hexatech simulator as a core element of their virtual engineering services,” says Roy Park, head of Cruden Asia-Pacific. “However, we see motor manufacturers and race teams increasingly using motion simulators as a means of translating technological developments - tyres, damper, shock absorbers, suspension, ride and handling, for example - to non-technical target audiences at motor shows, press launches, focus groups and corporate hospitality. Also, there is potential in automotive research and civil engineering applications where the design, safety and cost of large investment projects can be optimised by first simulating their use in everyday conditions ‘offline’ prior to execution.”

Cruden is exhibiting with technical partners E2M Technologies at SimTect 2010 (stand no. 18) between 31 May and 3 June at the Brisbane Convention Centre.