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Flat surface roadway simulators (FSRS) now under construction will allow total vehicle laboratory testing. An FSRS combines flat surface belt, chassis dynamometer and road fatigue simulator technology to measure vehicle performance and durability under realistic driving conditions in the laboratory. The development and intended application of this class of test system is described in this paper.

The engineering effort devoted to analytical simulation of vehicle performance is rapidly increasing in the 1990's. Success is largely bounded by (1) the modelers ability to determine vehicle responses not easily modeled, but required for analytical representation of complete vehicles, and (2) model validation. Previously modelers have been dependant on the proving grounds as a source of information for modeling inputs as well as a place for response validation. Laboratory based mechanical and control technology is rapidly emerging as a source of convenient, easily accessible and cost effective vehicle response data and validation site of analytical results. This paper is an overview of current and emerging technologies used to evaluate and quantify component, subsystem and even full vehicle performance in the simulation laboratory as a source of information to feed and validate analytical models.