RWTH Aachen University

General

Expertise

Institute for Automotive Engineering (ika) is part of RWTH Aachen University and is active in the field of applied automotive research. RWTH Aachen University is recognised as one of the leading universities world-wide in vehicle technology.

The range of services offered by ika reaches from the idea up to the experimental testing of prototypes and production vehicles. ika’s activities are tailored to industrial demands and structured in ten department: Corresponding to its main areas of work, ika comprises ten departments: chassis, body, drivetrain, acoustics, electrics/electronics, driver assistance, vehicle concepts, thermal management, driver experience & performance as well as strategy & consulting.

Public funding, industrial sponsoring as well as a great deal of personal effort on behalf of the institute’s staff are major factors to make the resources available, which are required in research and advanced development projects. ika’s equipment comprises:

• numerous testing facilities:
• full-scale test tracks, a.o. with certified pavement for accelerated passage
• highly dynamic driving simulators
• crash-test facility, pedestrian protection test bench and drop towers
• servo-hydraulic test benches for quasi-static loading and durability tests
• semi-anechoic test chamber (class 1) with temperature range from -20 to +40 °C
• explosion-proof battery test bench (1000 V/1000 A)
• psycho-acoustic laboratory
• tyre test benches
• test bench for k&c and inertia parameter identification
• dynamic driveline test benches
• cv-joints test rigs
• various test vehicles for automated driving
• etc.
• high performance computing cluster (224 CPU)
• latest commercial simulation software for
• traffic flow simulation
• analyses of powertrain efficiency
• crash analyses
• multi-body simulation (chassis and dummy kinematics)
• aerodynamics simulations
• multidisciplinary numerical optimization
• etc
• mechanical, electric/electronics, and automobile workshops

This wide range of competencies and resources enables analysing and optimising the vehicle as a whole paying attention to the complex interactions between its individual subsystems.

Participation in EU Projects and International Activities

IKA was or is involved in a large number of EU projects:

ActiveTest, AIDER, AdaptIVe, ALLIANCE, APOLLO, APROSYS, APSN, AsPeCSS, AUTOFORE, CARTRE, CHAMELEON, CIVITAS-DYN@MO, CONVENIENT, COVER, CityMobil, DELIVER, DESERVE, EAGAR, EASYBAT, ECOCHAMPS, ecoDriver, ecoMOVE, ELEDRIVE, ELMAS, ELVA, ENLIGHT, epsilon, EU-LIVE, euroFOT, eVALUE, ERANET, FCTESTNET, FLYTECH, FOTNet2, FOT-Net Data, FUERO, FUEVA, FURORE, FUTURE-RADAR, Friction, GAST, GOAL, HI-CEPS, HySYS, HyTRAN, INMOVE, interactIVe, Intersafe-2, JobVehElec, MID-MOD, Matador, OPTEMUS, OSTLER, PReVENT, Protector, Roads2Hycom, ROTRANOMA, SafeEV, SAFIER, SARTRE, SUVA, SuperLightCar, TeleFOT, TRA Visions 2016, YEAR 2010