Simulator Moving Platform

Crane Cab Simulator

Whilst we had produced several product visualisations for our client, this was the first design engineering project for them. Our main objective was to prove a concept devised by them for a simulator moving platform on which a crane cab unit could be built.

Software used:

Supplied Concept

We were supplied with the basic concept, of three motors powering a moving platform. There were inherent issues to be overcome, the primary one being gimbal lock which could render the concept null and void. Our original mission was to ascertain if this was a real issue.

Preliminary Designs

Building to scale in Autodesk Inventor allowed us to simulate the moving platform movement, pushing it to the extremes, past its ordinary use parameters.

Simultaneously, we strived to limit the height of the base, which would impact how large a crane cab unit could be placed on the moving platform. Here we can see tests carried out to ascertain the best position for the rod end bearing to prevent gimbal lock.

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Design Constraints

Several space issues affected the design of the simulator moving platform. The platform itself could not be so high that it meant the operative sat in the simulator would be over the 1.5m preferred eye level of the simulator’s 3m spherical projection sphere within which the crane cab unit would sit.

Secondly, in its raised position, the base should allow enough space for an engineer to access the motors and control units.

Thirdly, the footprint should not extend outside the minimum space allotted for the smallest spherical projection sphere.

Support Legs

Along with the moving version of the platform, another option would be a static version. This might be as a permanent option or where a motor failure meant the unit needed to be stabilised indefinitely.

For this we designed a set of legs that could be bolted on, but were safely stored on the base unit until needed.

Transportation Legs

As the entire moving platform assembly was designed to be transported in its assembled form via pallet, to avoid damage to the motors a simple set of fixing brackets were added. These helped alleviate any potential issue of damage to the motors in transit.

Finished Moving Platform

This is the first finished build of the moving platform, complete with the base of the crane cab unit we went on to design. More about that can be read here.