Cruden was founded in 2005 by 3 people, including Maarten van Donselaar, the current CEO.
Based in Amsterdam, the company designs and manufactures professional simulators for the automotive, F1 sports, marine and motorbike industries. The company now employs just under 50 FTE, and they have big-name customers such as Porsche, BMW, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Toyota, Audi, Mercedes, Nissan, Bridgestone, Pirelli, and many more. The company has now installed over 120 simulators. They have grown slowly. When they started, most car companies still built their own simulators, often at high cost.
Cruden designed a standard simulator, which can be individually customised for each customer with the help of the in-house designed software Panthera. Interest from the automotive industry grew quickly.
The simulators are used to test various (modifications to) systems in the automotive industry, but also in motorsport and maritime sectors. Moreover, the systems can also be used well for training purposes. The simulators usually consist of a frame that can go into 6 degrees of freedom and a cylindrical projection wall showing an image of the relevant environment. This could be roads, a race track, the sea, a river, etc. Of course, the final environment displayed depends on the type of simulator and the purpose for which it is used.
The idea is that the person behind the wheel reacts just as he would in the real vehicle or craft so that the combination of man and machine can be evaluated even before you build the first prototype.
Simulators are now widely used in the design of new cars. For example, to design a self-driving car that feels safe, it is important for engineers and researchers to understand how the driver and passengers feel when travelling in a highly automated vehicle. There is virtual prototyping today, where in the past, for example, up to 30 prototypes were actually built to arrive at the right design. The next step is to optimise the car for the user. In a simulator, different people can be involved and give feedback in different scenarios, throughout the development process. This makes it relatively easy to test all kinds of modifications and allows engineers to validate and make more informed design choices faster. This results in better designs, shorter development time, reduced prototyping costs and less environmental impact.
Chances are that in the future, cars will be self-driving and the driver will only have to intervene occasionally. This can all be tested with simulators. The cars will then focus more on comfort and safety rather than speed. Simulators can be used to test how drivers handle such a car and how to ensure that the driver actually takes action at the right moment.
Another well-known application of simulators is the racing industry. For example, Cruden has recreated racing circuits with their software so that an F1 driver can test a track and become familiar with it. In addition, they are often used for research by other people from the F1 team.
This counter guarantee is really ideal for businesses like ours. Instead of your money being tied up because your customer wants a bank guarantee, you can just access your money and keep building your products.
Simulators are also increasingly used for maritime training. They make it possible to imitate all kinds of situations perfectly, ensuring that a ship's crew is as prepared as possible for unexpected situations. You can think of navigating at high speed, reading radar, coming alongside. Van Donselaar: "Again, people have to forget that they are in a simulator. Especially when things get exciting, they have to get hot."
The transaction for which Cruden took out a counter-guarantee with Atradius Dutch State Business concerns the supply of 9 driving simulators for vehicle development, as well as design, project management, installation and training to BMW A.G. in Germany. BMW has built a new development centre and Cruden has set up a department with simulators in that centre. These simulators look like real cars and stand on a real (recreated) road and are used by test panels consisting of various types of drivers. The group ranges from people with much to little driving experience, enthusiastic drivers or, on the contrary, more anxious drivers. These people test a new design. Their reactions are measured objectively and then they are also asked for their opinions. This allows the engineers to create the optimal design. This may involve the design of the dashboard, the adjustment of the chassis, the gearbox, etc.
The counter guarantee helps exporters keep their working capital available if a buyer requests security for their upfront payment. Van Donselaar: "This counter guarantee is really ideal for companies like ours. Instead of having your money tied up because your customer wants a bank guarantee, you can just access your money and get on with making your products."
Right now, there are a number of interesting developments for Cruden that could have quite an impact on the future. The most important development mainly concerns visualisation. Until now, it has mostly been done with projected images, but nowadays there are also very large LED screens, which can show a much sharper image. The disadvantage is that they are still very expensive.
Another development is a head-mounted display, where you see a mixed reality that is a combination of the real dashboard together with a projected exterior image. Here, software plays a very important role. Cruden is closely following these developments and wants to continue making a difference for customers with these.
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