Design of highly realistic virtual environment for excavator simulator

•An excavator simulator has been developed with an open source engine Delta3D.•Dynamic terrain is used to create realistic visual appearance on operating regions.•The modified soil-tool model is adopted to predict excavation forces at the bucket.•The oblique perspective projection matrix is deduced for the seamless conjoining.

On the basis of an open source engine Delta3D, a PC-based excavator simulator has been developed in this paper for training human operators and evaluating control strategies for heavy-duty hydraulic machines. Real-time Optimally Adapting Mesh (ROAM) algorithm is involved to produce terrain deformation with dynamic resolution and a modified Fundamental Earthmoving Equation model is applied to predict excavation forces. A GPU (graphics processing unit) based terrain-rendering method is adopted to create realistic visual appearance of different operating regions on terrain such as excavated pit and dumped mound during the simulation. In the system, surrounding LCDs (liquid crystal displays) are placed at the corresponding windows’ position in the driving cab instead of using multiple projectors. For irregular screens, the oblique perspective projection matrix is deduced for the seamless conjoining of graphic scenes in different LCDs. Finally, through the feedback of consumers, we proceed the comprehensive evaluation about the simulator.

Graphical abstractThe design of highly realistic virtual environment for excavator simulator, realizes the dynamic interaction between the bucket and terrain and scene seamless conjoining between different scenes, Tao Ni, Hongyan Zhang, Changzhi Yu, et al., Computers and Electrical Engineering.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide