CLEMSON, S.C. — Clemson University and the US Army's Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) Ground Vehicle Systems Center (GVSC) have announced a partnership worth $40 million total for the university to research and develop the next generation of on- and off-road vehicles.
In 2020, the US Army contributed $18 million to Clemson's Virtual Prototyping of Ground Systems (VIPR-GS) Research Center, and the additional $22 million was secured on February 24, 2022. The US Government is committing up to $100 million to the project.
Clemson's VIPR-GS Research Center will provide simulation and digital engineering capabilities, as well as model demonstrations "to increase efficiency in design-to-build processes in support of GVSC’s ambitious goals for rapid modernization of U.S. Army fleets."
Since the partnership was announced in 2020, 65 faculty and 74 master's and PhD students have joined the research teams for the development of advanced autonomous ground vehicle systems, next-generation propulsion and energy systems, manned and unmanned teaming in unpredictable off-road environments, innovative simulations, and digital engineering tools to design off-road vehicle fleet’s systems of systems.
The university's Department of Automotive Engineering’s hallmark Deep Orange program in the College of Engineering, Computing and Applied Sciences engages students in hardware demonstrations and will provide a full-scale test bed for validating research outcomes.
VIPR-GS is led by founding director Zoran Filipi, Ph.D., former chair of the Department of Automotive Engineering at Clemson, and a team of six senior faculty overseeing research efforts on site. The VIPR-GS program manager is Jeff Linden, who is also an automotive engineer.