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Cute logo used by Project TRILBY. The hat is a Trilby and it symbolizes "top to bottom" or "head to foot" control of vehicles

With the advent and proliferation of electronics and computers in automotive vehicles in the early ‘80’s, a Corporate project named TRILBY was started under the auspices of GM Research (GMR) to investigate how this could be done more rationally. More specifically, in the TRILBY’s "Charter Letter" of March 23, 1984, Bob Frosch, then VP of GMR, stated TRILBY’s mission as "to create the methodology and technology for designing cars from an overall systems point of view, marrying our best knowledge of automotive science and technology to modern systems, controls, computer and electronics technology. The emphasis is on control of all aspects of vehicle operation....TRILBY is a character in an 1894 novel of the same name by George du Maurier. In the novel she is under the control of Dr. Svengali." I was part of the team that launched TRILBY, and was subsequently responsible for developing various math-based tools and methods to support this novel (at that time) systems approach to automotive vehicle creation.

In 1984, a small team of us had moved from GMR to the Top of Troy Building to formulate TRILBY, and subsequently to our permanent headquarters at 1151 Crooks Road in Troy. We recruited a "volunteer army" from within GMR, and subsequently several engineers and managers were added from other operating units. TRILBY, at its peak, had over 100 engineers and scientists on staff.

The original TRILBY team, while formulating the project realized that the only rational way to effectively integrate electronics, computers, and controls into vehicles was via a "top-down" or systems engineering approach as was subsequently reflected in Bob Frosch’s charter letter (above). We travelled around the country looking for partners for TRILBY. In fact, GM’s acquisition of Hughes was partially driven by upper management’s support of TRILBY – and, in particular, Roger Smith’s support. We had just gotten going on TRILBY when Roger mentioned us to the Wall Street Journal and we ended up on the front page on March 14, 1985 (left sidebar)! The TRILBY team defined probably the first systems engineering (albeit not totally complete) process for GM, developed a number of new vehicle control concepts and demonstration vehicles including integrated chassis control and 4-wheel steering concepts, and developed a number of state-of-the-art facilities including a hardware in the loop (HIL) laboratory. We also defined how human factors considerations could be better integrated into the vehicle creation process, and assembled an extremely capable human factors team. TRILBY technical people developed many computer-aided engineering and control system design tools some of which are still being used today.

Although originally touted as a 5 year program, the Corporate "appetite" for systems engineering and its tools increased markedly. Hence, in 1988 Project TRILBY ended. A large number of the technical people formed the nucleus of GM’s Systems Engineering Center (a CPC organization at that time). The remainder moved back to GMR where they continued to contribute significantly to advanced vehicle and control concepts over the years.

Project TRILBY was one of the greatest experiences of my 32 year career with GM!

Diagram showing computer-based toolset that TRILBY was creating. Emphasis was on integration and having a coarse to fine toolset. Also, TRILBY added reliability, flexible tools, and robust design capabilities to GM’s capabilities.

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