1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196 
THE SIMULATOR
Page 57
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
It's trucking, but not as we know it...
The TRL's truck simulator is designed to find out what practical use simulators can serve in the road transport industry, particularly for training novices in safety. The forthcoming Compulsory Training Directive will put a major strain on the UK's training resources; the TRLS team of researchers, led by Professor Andrew Rogers, has been briefed to establish what contribution simulators can make.
The simulator is an impressive piece of kit. It's based on the latest Mercedes Actros cab, and once aboard and surrounded by the screens you soon get into the swing of things. There's movement in all planes and it gives a very good feeling of movement.
Obviously it's no substitute for the real thing, but from our experience simulators could, with a few minor tweaks, have a significant role to play in training. At speed, for example, the computer couldn't update the view fast enough to fool the mind, but it would be prohibitively expensive to overcome this with extra computing power. This is less of an issue for low-speed manoeuvring. The simulator would also be improved with attention to the gearshift and the clutch— both were too light and lacked feel.