Toyota Turns to Maplesoft™

Maplesoft™, the leading provider of high-performance software tools for engineering, science, and mathematics today announced a multi-year contract with Toyota Motor Corporation, the world’s largest automobile company.

Physical modeling requires a symbolic approach to computations in order to accurately and efficiently represent real-world physical systems. Toyota approached Maplesoft a year ago in an effort to improve its engineering and design operations. The software will allow the automaker's designers to produce a mathematical model for each component of a new vehicle model. Since each part of the vehicle is brought down to a mathematical formula, the software allows designers to get a clear idea of how the parts work together. More importantly, the software allows Toyota's design team to produce a digital simulation of how a new vehicle's components work together before a new model is even built.

“Model-Based Development will set new industry standards for the use of software tools and models in automotive systems development,” said Dr. Akira Ohata, Project General Manager of Toyota Motor Corporation. “Symbolic computation, pioneered by companies like Maplesoft, makes new design methods a reality today. Automotive companies like us will realize further improvements in cycle times, cost optimization, and smoother implementation of extremely complex systems.”

Toyota has been one of the earliest among industrial companies to embrace Model-Based Design (MBD), the concept of creating a computer-based model of a system to analyze, test, improve, and optimize the design before actually building the physical system. In the initial stages, this was used in the design, simulation, and implementation of control systems using tools from companies such as The MathWorks®. Toyota is now expanding its scope with the development of the new Model-Based Development process. The goal of MBD would be to improve time-to-market, quality, and reliability, while reducing cost.

As part of the partnership, Maplesoft and Toyota are doing pioneering work in other yet-to-be-announced projects as well. The two companies are also leading a Physical Modeling Consortium, which brings together leaders in the automotive industry to share ideas and advance the development of Rapid Plant Modeling Methodology based on symbolic computation.