Gantry crane simulator

The gantry crane is used to loadin and unloading container ships. It has a weight close to 1000 tons, raises loads of over 50 tons and the operator is placed in a booth suspended more than 30 meters above the ground. So, a great skill for handling it is required.

Description

Updated version November 2017 (here)

Gantry crane simulator: STS (Ship To Shore)

The gantry cranes consist of a supporting that can traverse the length of a spring, coupled with a mobile platform called spreader. They have the ability to pick up two to four 20-foot containers at once.

The gantry crane simulator is used for training handlers such as cranes in the port of Valencia and in several Latin American ports.

This simulator trains operators to be able to control any risk, due to the fact that they are trained in safe environments that replicate real experiences, accidents, weather changes and damage of equipment to learn the protocols to be followed.

Characteristics of the simulator

Constructing a gantry crane simulator for training new and experienced operators.The main aims of the simulator are:

Raising the economic performance of real cranes by spending less time in training periods.
Improving speed of learning curve of the operator.
Controlling adverse situations.
Increasing safety for both operators and cranes.
Screening of a quality image of the port.
Building an immersive environment based on “Virtual Reality” techniques similar to real environment daily working in a port crane’s control booth.

The operator will handle controls, feel the movements, hear sounds due to the operations carried out and see the work environment as if in the seat of a real booth.The simulator has a booth with actual controls, located on a mechanical system that provides movement sensations and audio and visual effects.

Different types of spreaders

Single-Spreader without TwinLift
Single-Spreader with TwinLift
Tandem-Spreader without TwinLift
Tandem-Spreader with TwinLift
Double-Spreader with TwinLift

Ships.

Functional modelling of the correct ships with proper numbering of holds and physically full functional, from the guides of the hold to the railings of the castle. To train operators whether novice or more experienced there are several types of boats of different sizes and may including two or three covers per hold.

Feeder of 800 TEUS and 8 rows of wide containers
Panamax of 1800 TEUS and 10 rows of wide containers
Post-Panamax of 12000 TEUS and 22 rows of wide containers
Handy with cranes assembled on ships

Other elements of the scene

Functional RoRos, reachstacker and trastainers on the scene

Running many types of real Exercises

Bootstrapping and stop the actual crane
Loading and unloading in hold
Loading and unloading on deck
Loading and unloading a lorry
Working with trim
Working with containers of 20 and 40 feet
Control of flippers, twist locks, etc.
Working in manual and automatic mode
User and instructor information on screen

Other characteristics

Sensors (Advanced and HID)

The events income and analogue signals system of the simulator is made to be highly configurable and can be used from gaming devices to high-level electronic boards.

Each client can configure through a simple interface the use of the controls to their liking and according to the type of equipment they use.

Moving platform

The simulator is capable of using a moving platform to simulate sudden movements and accelerations which occur in the real machine.

The main aim is to get the user perceive a greater sense of realism and immersion in learning. Many times, carrying out exercises with virtual reality simulators, either because of its difficulty and lack of physical responses, can cause demotivation on the user of these simulators.

Collaborative

The simulator is ready to simulate several cranes (of the same or different type) in the same environment at the same time.

This way a single instructor can evaluate two or more operators while they’re controlling a crane.

It is also possible to train the skills of future machine operators to better communicate and improve efficiency when working with others.

Languages

Our simulators offer a multi-language medium. Thanks to the settings panel, you can easily change the language in which the simulator is shown. We currently offer translations into Spanish, English, French and Portuguese, if the language you want is not among the above, please contact us.

Exercises editor

Thanks to the exercises editor, our simulator offers the possibility to create exercises for you. In the editor, you can add elements on stage with which to make practices shortcomings are detected on the student. The created exercise can be saved, so it can be made later by other students.

Tracker

Our simulators offer the ability of image tracking through compatibility with NaturalPoint’s products. This technology will add another degree of realism to the product and you can change the view point just moving your head.

Automatic Updates

This tool reports the launch of a new version of the simulator. Every time the application starts it connects to the LSyM group’s server and is responsible for searching for a newer version of software, if so, a screen with information about this new version, and a link to the direct download of the new executable is shown.

Groups and users management

The simulator provides instructions for the proper management of users and workgroups. Through the interface you may perform basic tasks such as creating, editing and deleting both users and groups, adapting the use of the simulator to customer needs. It also allows you to view statistics and evaluations of each user in a clear and detailed way.

Exercises assessment

Every time an exercise is performed on the simulator, the necessary data are stored to proceed with the assessment of the exercise itself. Users can access this information shown by the exercise report. This report contains outstanding data such as the motions or made remarkable observations and presented to the user using tables and graphs showing in detail each of the evaluated parameters and information of interest such as the completion time of year, number of exercise performed, date, etc.

Debriefing

The possibility to play every exercise that has been done before is among the most beneficial features for training offer by the simulators. This feature is very important when it comes to identifying the faults that are committed as it can be played the exercises and watch the recording from any angle, rewinding or pausing the playback.

In addition, a situation that occurs in the training processes is that students always are prone to make similar mistakes. In our simulators debriefing system an instructor can playback exercises of any student in order to teach new students the mistakes they should avoid.

Weather conditions.

The simulator implements several types of weather situations that may be critical in the real world as could be low visibility for a very cloudy day or at dark night. These conditions are also reflected in the physical operation of the crane, since in rainy and windy days is much more difficult to carry out successfully the exercises.It is easy and quick to implement new types of exercises if necessary for some specification of a particular case.

Screens

The screens of the simulators are an important part. A wrong setup of the screens can make the user experience not to be utterly immersive when it is running.

Therefore, our simulators provide a very intuitive screens setting interface, easy to configure and designed to the screen system where the simulator is running be fully configurable. You can configure up to 8 screens arranged in any position at any angle. This allows endless possibilities for visual perception of the user who uses our simulator be identical to that perceived in real crane.