A battle tank simulator for eye and hand coordination tasks under horizontal whole-body vibration

This paper describes the development of a simulator to reproduce gunner’s target tracking tasks in a main battle tank, under whole-body vibration conditions. For specifying the vibration and tracking conditions, three-degree-of-freedom acceleration was measured in a tracked armored vehicle, equipped with a 105 mm cannon, running in a battlefield test track. The electrohydraulic dynamics of the turret systems was experimentally identified as black-box autoregressive functions. A pneumatic actuation system and a real-time control software were designed to reproduce horizontal, single-axis periodic motion with the dominant frequency observed in field measurements. The control software displays the target and sight points and acquires the turret pointing command from an adapted gunner’s handle joystick. The root mean square error between target and simulated turret position allows assessing gunner’s target acquisition and tracking performance under periodic vibration.

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Assessment of whole-body vibration exposure of mining truck drivers

Journal of the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy ◽

10.17159/2411-9717/1146/2020 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 120 (9) ◽

Author(s):

B. Erdem ◽

T. Dogan ◽

Z. Duran

Keyword(s):

Health Effect ◽

Whole Body Vibration ◽

Correlation Coefficients ◽

Dominant Frequency ◽

Truck Drivers ◽

Whole Body ◽

Vibration Acceleration ◽

Body Vibration ◽

Dump Trucks ◽

Iso 2631

SYNOPSIS Whole-body vibration (WBV) exposure measurements taken from 105 truck drivers employed in 19 mines and other workplaces were evaluated with the criteria prescribed in EU 2002/44/EC directive, BS 6841 (1987), ISO 2631-1 (1997). and ISO 2631-5 (2004) standards. The highest vibration acceleration was measured on the vertical Z-axis. The highest WBV exposure occurred in the RETURN, HAUL, and SPOT phases while the lowest exposure took place in the LOAD and WAIT phases. Crest factors on all axes were generally greater than nine, yet strong correlation coefficients were achieved in VDV-eVDV analyses. Driver seats generally dampened the vibration along the Z-axis but exacerbated it along X and Y axes. The dominant frequency for the X and Y-axes rose up to 40 Hz while it ranged between 1 Hz and 2.5 Hz along the Z-axis. While the probability of an adverse health effect was higher with BS 6841 (1987) and ISO 2631-1 (1997) standards, it was low according to EU 2002/44/EC and ISO 2631-5 (2004). The 91 t, 100 t, and 170 t capacity trucks produced lower vibration magnitudes. Drivers were exposed to approximately equivalent levels of WBV acceleration and dose in contractor-type trucks and mining trucks. Rear-dump trucks exposed their drivers to a slightly higher level of vibration than bottom-dump trucks. Underground trucks exposed their drivers to a significantly higher level of vibration than mining trucks. Both driver age and driver experience were inversely proportional to vibration acceleration and dose. Conversely, there was a positive relationship between the truck service years and the WBV acceleration and dose to which drivers were exposed to. Loads of blocky material exposed drivers to higher vibration acceleration and dose levels than non-blocky material. Keywords: whole-body vibration, mining truck, A(8), BS 6841, EU 2002/EC/44, ISO 2631-1, ISO 2631-5, VDV(8).

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