Fork-lift truck simulator for training in industrial environment

Since their first usage simulators have been employed in training staff in civil aeronautics and in military fields to improve driving skills without compromising safety of people and machines. The system proposed in this paper is suited to transfer this activity into the industrial field, in particular an innovative fork-lift simulator is presented. Actually most frequent causes of accident with fork-lifts are wrong manoeuvres accomplished by drivers. This simulator aims to improve skills in driving and handling materials using a fork-lift. The system can reply inertial feedback on the operator and allows the user to control all the tasks of a fork-lift as driving and handling materials. The paper presents an overall view of the system including Stewart platform, supporting structure, physical based model, wash-out filter, system architecture and a video system mounted on board of the moving platform