Machine simulations

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REALITY: From the driver’s seat the experience of a simulator feels very real indeed.

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BIG SEAT: Other simulators on the market are semi-portable.

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TOWER: Power is provided by a rack of computers. The software is Windows based.

Simulators have been with us for a little while, but until now there has been no product for training operators on the kind of equipment we are familiar with - namely loaders, excavators, haul trucks and the like.

Fortunately, simulators for our industry have now been developed, and are now making their way in to the UAE.

The reasons for training in this way are various, but the most important is site safety. With a simulator, there is no chance the trainer will miss a mistake - any error, however minor will be picked up by the computer.

Phil Stewart of Next Gen Simulations, an Australian company that hope to find a JV in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, said "From a training perspective, you just need to watch the busses go around in a circle and you would sit next to me and I'd show you how to drive, so you are learning my mistakes even if I haven't got any, it is subjective, so I might say yes you can drive, and he might say no you can't so you've got two standards, this is all written to a standard Nothing can interfere with that assessment tool It is all recorded, and a list of errors will be produced."

Driving seat

So what is it like to drive? At the time of our visit the machine was running a simulation based on a Cat 785 haul truck, on a life-sized open cast mine, which really exists somewhere in Queensland. The actual dashboard, pedals and seat from the truck are arranged on a plinth, which sits atop a complex of hydraulic struts.

Surrounding the enclosure are several screens which have the CGI graphics beamed onto them from video projectors, while a bank of computers hum away alongside a desk, where the supervisor controls the simulation in front of a line of regular PC screens. all sounds a bit Heath Robinson, but when you sit in the driving seat, the experience suddenly becomes very real indeed.

From this hotseat, all of the screens converge, so that it looks just like the view you would get from a haul truck. The perspective is right too - the offside mirror looks tiny and about a mile away, while the feeling of height perched atop a two-story truck also feels very real. My task today was to ‘drive' the truck to the loading shovel, where it will be filled with coal, before returning to the in-pit crusher where the load will be deposited. It sounds so simple, but as mentioned, the spy in the computer is going to be keeping a track of my every move.

Firstly the seat belt has to be fastened. This might seem ridiculous when sitting in a computer console, but the role of the machine is to seem as close to the real experience as possible. "If the customer's requirements are that a hard hat and yellow jacket need to be worn, then that is what we do."

Stewart explained. "Actually, the pedals can feel very different when wearing safety boots" Footwear is the least of my worries as I figure out how to drive this thing. Even before I touch the key my first mistake is logged (you are supposed to sound the horn before starting off).

Nonetheless, I cranked the giant turbo-diesel into life which started from cold with a thunderous shake and a puff of black smoke - but wait - I have to remind myself that this is simply a simulation and the noise is coming from the five surround sound speakers, while the vibration is from the hydraulic platform, which is connected to the computer. I put my foot on the service brake, select a gear, release the park brake and... nothing. After adjusting the engine retarder the giant machine hiccupped to a start...

Perception

Despite the size of the simulated truck, it was clear that it was fairly fast, when it was empty at least. Going down the pit roads it was all too easy to break the 45km/h limit imposed in this quarry, earning me another black mark in the computer's log. Suddenly it was night time and a torrential downpour of the like central Australia had never seen before was on me - that is another beauty of a simulator, you can produce any number of difficult conditions which operators will only see occasionally and prepare them for it.

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