Simulator software company rFpro has used surface scanning technology to produce what it says are more accurate digital road models. It says this capability helps manufacturers to tailor chassis dynamics on global vehicles for individual markets, which improves cost and time of development.

One development has been to replace the pulse laser light detection and ranging (LIDAR) time-of-flight scanning process with several separate, phased laser signals. The phasing allows the signals to overlap, which increases the speed and quantity of the data captured.

In 2012, the company built just over 100 kilometers (km) of digital road models. Last year it built more than 1,000 km and this year the company says it expects to build around 3,000 km of digital road models.

The company says it has been working with a group of regionally located scanning partners to provide global coverage and that all of the partners have added this phase-based scanning capability to the systems they use in rFpro’s road surveys.

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