Toyo launches AI-assisted tire development platform

Hyogo, Japan – Toyo Tire Corp. has upgraded its conventional automotive tire design base technologies with the combination of computer aided engineering (CAE) and artificial intelligence (AI).

T-Mode, originally developed in 2000, offers a platform to combine data from various simulation technologies conducted by the tire maker, ‘revolutionalising’ the company’s development process, Toyo said in an 18 July statement.

The simulation processes include tire simulation, which reproduces tire motion in use and employs this for performance prediction and structural analysis.

In addition, Toyo conducts “driving simulation”, which replicates various car model information, passenger numbers, loads and driving patterns to assess the impact on tires from car motion.

Whereas conventionally designers handle the data they acquire from simulations individually, the T-Mode platform unifies the management of various data types as shared assets, allowing for sharing between designers.

Connecting the data from design, simulation, and test improves the added value of the information and enhances learning, Toyo noted.

In addition, using simulation process and data management (SPDM), Toyo has incorporated AI design support technologies into the old T-Mode simulation infrastructure to increase innovation speed.

Traditionally, means of resolution involved first entering design specifications and running a simulation, then obtaining performance values from the results.

If performance values did not satisfy requirements, the design specifications would be revised and the simulation repeated, extending the process term overall.

However, T-Mode can now derive design data for structures, shapes, and patterns required for the target performance through the use of its AI-assisted system and shorten the iteration process through "inverse problem solution” technology.

The new T-Mode, Toyo noted, has been developed in alignment with technological advances in the next-generation mobility, which requires “high-precision and high-speed in design.”