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Information Technology: Personal Simulator
Heavy-equipment operators can train safely and inexpensively
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This is an image from a more advanced module designed to test load-chart knowledge while executing lifts using various loads and hook-block assemblies. The target position for the load is shown in the red wire frame. The load-moment indicator is colored green, showing that the operation is within the load-chart limits for this crane. |
The construction workforce crisis is in full bloom, and, luckily, contractors have a new tool to help train equipment operators.
The Personal Simulator created by Simlog trains operators to use heavy construction equipment such as cranes, excavators and trucks from the safety and convenience of the contractor’s office.
Using a standard office PC and a joystick that can be bought in any gaming store, the Personal Simulator software takes the trainees through a series of highly specific exercises designed to make them familiar with the equipment and how it is used.
“This is virtual reality, but not virtual training,” explains Mike Keffer, marketing specialist for Simlog, based in Montreal. “Students using the Personal Simulator are really being trained to be productive and safer.”
Simlog’s data shows that students who pass one week of simulator training, on average, become as proficient at the simulator controls as trainers who are experienced operators. That means that when the students do begin training on real construction equipment, they are familiar enough with the controls to operate it safely.
Personal Simulators can report key performance indicators to the trainer when the students are using the simulator and performing the trials. “The trainer, who may be an experienced operator, doesn’t need to be there,” which saves the cost of a trainer and allows the operator to continue working in the field, Keffer says.
Simlog’s research shows that about 30% of people don’t have the psycho-motor skills to operate construction equipment, so simulators can help pre-screen them.
John Kennemer, equipment superintendent at Zachry Construction Corp. in San Antonio, says his firm uses the Personal Simulator “for pre-appointment screening, to improve operator efficiency and for cross-training from one piece of equipment to another.”
The simulator also is a valuable way to eliminate people who will never be good at the job, Kennemer adds. And, his company doesn’t have to use costly fuel for training. The Personal Simulator does not take the place of sitting in the equipment, but “an accident on the simulator is fixed by hitting reset. On the ground the implications are much different,” Kennemer says.
Simlog’s Keffer says that the simulators are developed to teach generic skills although they are based on specific Caterpillar equipment. “So it doesn’t matter which model you end up using,” he says. “The controls will be the same.”
Customers can build their own training stations using projectors, a big screen and a chair. Simlog supplies brackets so the trainees feel like they are sitting in the cab.
A list of equipment for Personal Simulation is available at company’s Web site. The software runs on any PC or laptop and costs $3,000 to $6,000 for the license. Standard gamers’ joysticks can be used as well as industrial joysticks that replicate the controls Caterpillar has in its cabs.
Simlog
440 Rene-Levesque Boulevard West, Suite 1210
Montreal, Quebec
H2Z 1V7 Canada
514-861-3111
Tollfree: 1-888-774-6564
www.simlog.com
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