PC-controlled 3-axis motion platform adds further realism to training experience
Fort Smith, AR, February 1, 2010 – A three-axis motion platform based on Baldor Electric Company’s Ethernet-compatible drives is helping to further increase the realism of crane training experience by physically moving a simulator system’s replica operator cabin in synchronism with computer-generated images. The specialist machine manufacturer Electropneumatics & Hydraulics developed the motion platform for the leading training solutions and services supplier Applied Research International (ARI).
Based in New Delhi, India, ARI produces a comprehensive range of simulators for marine and allied applications. Its products include a wide variety of offshore, quay-side and gantry crane simulators to provide safe, cost-effective operational training for container movement and bulk handling operations. ARI’s simulators emulate the visual, behavioral and operational characteristics of their real-world counterparts to create a fully immersive environment in which the trainee can gain true hands-on experience. A typical crane simulator comprises a modular PC-based control system, a replica operator cabin and seat, a high fidelity audio-visual system, and an instructor station equipped with CCTV for monitoring the actions of the trainee.
When ARI decided to add an optional motion platform to its line of crane simulators, it approached Electropneumatics & Hydraulics for assistance. This company – whose headquarters and manufacturing facility at Chakan, near Pune – was founded in 1972, and has acquired an enviable reputation for its electromechanical machine design and manufacturing capabilities. Electropneumatics & Hydraulics specializes in the production of metalforming equipment, such as hydraulic presses and tube bending machines, and also designs and builds special-purpose machinery including different levels of automation with total indigenous content and capability.
Electropneumatics & Hydraulics chose to base the motion platform for the crane simulator on Baldor’s Powerlink- and Ethernet-compatible drives and servomotors. According to the company’s Technical Director, Ashley Rasquinha, “Baldor’s MicroFlex e100 AC servo drives are very cost-effective for this type of application, because they can be controlled via TCP/IP direct from the simulator’s host PC, without the need for additional hardware.”
The three-axis motion platform provides X, Y and Z movement of the replica operator cabin, synchronized to the computer-generated images being presented to the trainee. Since it is designed to emulate the movement of a real-life gantry crane very accurately, the platform’s drive axes are only required to handle relatively simple motion control tasks such as point-to-point moves and homing sequences, and do not require interpolation. As a consequence, the MicroFlex e100 servo drives can be used in their basic Ethernet mode, without any additional complexity of real-time control.
Each axis is driven by a Baldor BSM 3-phase servomotor equipped with an incremental encoder for position and velocity feedback, controlled by a dedicated MicroFlex e100 servo drive. All three drives are housed in a separate floor-standing control cabinet, and are connected via a D-Link 10/100 Mbps Ethernet switch to the simulator’s host PC.