Title: New developments in simulation-based harbour crane training

Authors: Ignacio García-Fernández; Marta Pla-Castells; Miguel A. Gamón; Rafael J. Martínez-Durá

Addresses: IRTIC, Universitat de Valencia, C/Catedrático José Beltrán, 2, 46980 – Paterna (Valencia), Spain ' IRTIC, Universitat de Valencia, C/Catedrático José Beltrán, 2, 46980 – Paterna (Valencia), Spain ' IRTIC, Universitat de Valencia, C/Catedrático José Beltrán, 2, 46980 – Paterna (Valencia), Spain ' IRTIC, Universitat de Valencia, C/Catedrático José Beltrán, 2, 46980 – Paterna (Valencia), Spain

Abstract: This paper presents the efforts that have been made during the development of a set of harbour training simulators to improve their quality. The paper focuses on two main research lines: the improvement of complex physical systems involved in the simulation and the analysis of hardware architecture solutions. Cable-based hoist systems and bulk materials are systems present in different harbour equipment and are usually simulated with poor quality due to their complexity. In this paper physics-based models for the interactive simulation of these systems are proposed and applied to real cases. Also, different hardware simulator architectures are analysed and different approaches are proposed to the problem of choosing the devices for a simulator.

Keywords: training simulators; virtual reality; harbour training; harbour simulation; immersive systems; Stewart platforms; tracking devices; crane simulator; driving simulator; granular system modelling; simulation; cable modelling; cable simulation; crane drivers; driver training; hoist systems; bulk materials; crane operators; operator training.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSPM.2011.048009

International Journal of Simulation and Process Modelling, 2011 Vol.6 No.4, pp.274 - 287

Received: 30 Jan 2010
Accepted: 30 Jan 2011
Published online: 17 Jul 2012 *

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