Surface Mine Truck Safety Training

1
Surface Mine Truck Safety Training Design And
Implementation of a Multi-user VR Driving
Simulator Yan W. Ha, Jeremy Murray, and Dr.
Frederick C. Harris, Jr. Department of Computer
Science, University of Nevada, Reno
Abstract In the surface mine industry,
particularly on maneuvering off-highway mining
vehicles, the cost of workplace accidents is
high, and the traditional safety training methods
for drivers are costly, time consuming, and
generally ineffective. The purpose of this
project is to outline the motivation for and
development of a virtual reality based driving
simulator, which can cut costs and improve mining
safety. Specifically, the project considers the
use of a high level Application Programming
Interface (API), with conclusions and possible
future work being summarized.

• Goals
• The goals of this research project are
  three-fold
• to implement a mining vehicle driving simulator
  with a realistic physics model, including
  mechanical properties (e.g., acceleration,
  gear-shift, lateral force, etc.) and
  environmental effects (e.g., different weather
  conditions)
• to enhance the driving simulator in distributed
  architecture and thus multi-user and
• to utilize a steering wheel for maneuvering
  inside the 3D scene.

Conclusions Although virtual reality simulators
are not new, employing such simulators to reduce
training costs and reduce accident rates is
relatively new to the mining industry. Our
experience in utilizing the Torque Engine to
create a realistic mining vehicle simulator has
proven such approach is feasible. With future
improvements, it is reasonable to imagine such a
simulator can train new hires in the correct and
safe operation of mining vehicles effectively.
Fig 2. Physical size comparison of human and
mining truck

• Future Work
• To display a reasonably detailed dashboard at the
  bottom of the screen. e.g., speedometer, gearing
  indicator, etc.
• To import more mining vehicles and open-pit mine
  models into the simulator - for more variations
  throughout the training
• To provide a better networked simulation - for
  better interactivity between trainees on the same
  scene simultaneously
• To create a better physics model for the imported
  vehicles. e.g., user-controllable gearing shift
• To provide score-keeping capability. e.g.,
  generate a file indicating the number of times
  the user violates safety rules and a
  corresponding performance score
• To incorporate a variety of hazards inside the
  simulator - for a more realistic training
  experience
• And many other ideas too numerous to mention.

The Torque Engine Normally, using a low level
API to develop graphically intensive software
would require a substantial amount of effort. To
simplify the development, we choose to utilize
the Torque Engine, which emphasizes more on user
interaction and scene management rather than
drawing objects. The Torque Engine was developed
in order to implement the first-person action
game Tribes 2. The engine consists of about
500,000 lines of code, which is written in C
and Assembly language, and provides developers
with networking (UDP and TCP) capability. One
thing that helped us in our development was the
C like scripting language provided in the
engine that handles interior design and object
creation. Thus, by importing object models in an
appropriate format (i.e., dts, dif), we can
build our driving simulator much more rapidly
than would have been possible otherwise.
Introduction Accidents are a major concern in
day-to-day mining operations, where they can be
expensive in terms of both costs (considering the
fact that a new haul truck costs over 500,000)
and employee morale (industrial trucks are the
second leading cause of fatality as stated in
OSHA, 1995). Worker training is an effective
way to prevent workplace accidents. However, the
cost of attempting to provide a realistic
representation of risks associated with mining
vehicle operation (the size of these vehicles can
be seen in Figures 1 and 2), and to demonstrate
the proper techniques to manage those risks is
high under traditional training methods.
Virtual reality (VR) technology
based training tools have proven to be an
excellent approach to reducing both accidents and
the high cost of training. It becomes our
implementation approach, as it provides an
opportunity for our simulator to be flexible and
realistic.

• What We Have Done
• We have successfully done several things this
• summer in our research.
• Converted an open-pit mine layout file from
  AutoCAD to dif format and incorporated it to the
  engine. This is shown in Figure 3.
• Taken mining truck models from 3D Studio max
  format and converted them into a format our
  program can use. One such vehicle is shown in
  Figure 4.
• We then modified the source code for making
  driving with a steering wheel possible. Figure 5
  shows one of the steering wheels we used.
• We tested networking of two drivers in the same
  simulation.

Information For more information about this and
other VR projects, please visit our web page
at http//www.cs.unr.edu/vrpad
Fig 3. open-pit mine layout
Fig 1. Physical size comparison of mining truck
and a Suburban
Acknowledgements We would like to thank
NSF-EPSCoR and NIH-BRIN for their financial
support.
Fig 5. Driving with a steering wheel inside the
3D scene
Fig 4. Example of a mining truck model for our
program