Grader Simulator

A grader is a construction machine that has a long metal blade used to level terrain wheels. The front of the hopper can be raised by means of a hydraulic mechanism, so that the loaded material can be discharged to the ground from the rear of the vehicle. In addition it has scarifiers for hard terrain, which can be located at the front, in the middle of the front axle and the blade at the back, called in this case ripper.

Graders are commonly used in the construction and maintenance of dirt and gravel roads. Graders can produce sloping surfaces, side slopes to roads, and create drainage ditches with shallow V-sections on either side of the roadway.

Other common tasks are to rip, clean the floor to mix and distribute materials, or to remove snow from the roads.

The work of the grader usually complements that previously done by other construction machinery, such as excavators and bulldozers.

Equipment

• Cabin located on a platform of 2 to 6 degrees of freedom.
• Real Operations Console.
• Steering wheel, josyticks, accelerator and brake pedals, etc., for drive the machine.
• Instructor console with total control over the simulation.
• Real environment digital sound effects.
• Projection system with 2 to 5 high resolution screens.

Visualization system

• High-grade 3D real graphics
• High quality images, generated in real time
• External views displaying machine parameters
• Auxiliary views
• Intuitive user interface
• Implementation of shaders to provide greater visual realism to objects

Special conditions

• Weather events: wind, rain, fog, snow, etc.
• Work in different time zones: sunrise, day, sunset, night.
• Environmental conditions: smoke, dust, etc.
• Realistic response to collisions based on their severity.
• Realistic ground and terrain dynamics: mass forces, excavation and shearing, inertial properties and collisions affect the behavior of the machine.
• Artificial light.

Main functions

• Extensive theory module
• Complete instructional design
• Real machine start and stop sequence
• Simulation of the gearbox in automatic and manual mode
• Real response of the machine to the true terrain
• Injection of failures by the instructor at runtime
• Collaborative mode: It allows to interact with other machines controlled by a different user
• Dynamic Avatars
• Deformable dynamic terrain
• Screen information for both the user and the instructor
• Information window with the status and position of the machinery and the operation commands
• Multi language
• Design and implementation _Softpanel_ that allows the total control of the machine making use of the mouse of the PC
• Online system of faults report or comments by the client
• Sensors 100% configurable from the User Interface.

Instructional design

Our Grader Simulator consists of a complete design instructional divided in blocks, within each block appear a series of exercises that progressively increase its difficulty as the student is overcoming them.

The user of our simulator can perform, among others, the following exercises:

• Terrain leveling.
• Creation of slopes.
• Creation of ditches.
• Road construction.
• Driving circuits.
• Test exercises to assimilate the knowledge acquired in the theoretical module.

Reports at the instructor's console

• Date.
• Starting and ending time.
• Time length.
• Finished exercises.
• Control handling log.
• Velocity log.
• Collision log.
• Dangerous maneuvers log.