Rubber-Tyred Gantry Crane Simulator

A Rubber-Tyred & Rail Gantry Crane or RTG (Transtainer®) crane is a large gantry crane, which can travel on both rails (RMG: Rail Mounted Gantry Crane) and tires (RTG: Rubber Tyred Gantry Crane). When Transtainer® cranes run on rails, they have a limited range of operations because it can only operate on its rails. On tires they have a wider operating range.

Transtainer® Cranes are used for loading and unloading of containers on trucks or wagons or to put containers one above the other.

The solution developed by the Laboratory for Simulation and Modelling (LSyM) is a complete system that incorporates the latest technologies used in the field of simulation for training, including projection equipment from high performance to the necessary training materials for learning development and training of the operators of your company.

The trastainer crane is used in container terminals for cargo management at these terminals. To the inherent difficulty of working with containers, is added in this case the crane manoeuvre down the street and the necessary attention to truck traffic on the existing terminal.

Characteristics of the simulator

The general purpose of the Transtainer® Crane simulator or RTG is both the training of inexperienced operators and the training of expert operators who wish to improve skills. The objectives we pursue are:

• Improve the economic performance of real cranes by dedicating less time to operator training.
• Improve the learning curve of the operator, acquiring more skill in less time.
• Prepare the operator so that he can deal with adverse situations safely and efficiently.
• Related to the previous point: Increase safety for both operators and cranes.
• Achieve a quality image projection of the port.
• Build an immersive environment based on "Virtual Reality" techniques analogous to the real environment of a control cabin of a harbour crane.

The user, using controls similar to those of a real machine, will perceive the same movement and the same sounds that would perceive doing the operations on a real Transtainer® Crane. You will see a work environment the same point of view that would have operating the real crane.

For this we have a fully configurable cabin with real controls, located on a mechanical system that provides the sensation of movement and with an audio and video system that is responsible for creating an immersive learning environment.

Main operations for training

The simulator has different blocks of exercises designed to train the following skills:

• Actual starting and stopping sequence of the crane.
• Loading and unloading from trucks.
• Removals.
• Working with and without trimming.
• Control of the twist-locks.
• Working with 20 and 40 feet containers.

• Working in manual and automatic mode.
• User and instructor information on the screen.
• Status information window of the crane and operation commands.
• Turning wheels for street changing.
• Correction of the direction of travel on the street.

Reports at the instructor's console

Instructor can consult reports by users and exercises with the following information:

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