AN EFFICIENT METHODOLOGY FOR GENERATING VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS IN RAILWAY DRIVING SIMULATORS

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Nowadays, the use of virtual simulators as a learning tool is a widely-known technique that has a whole range of possibilities depending on the available budget. The methodology chosen to build the virtual environments in these simulations plays a key role in the simulator’s success, from a functional as well as a financial perspective. Although it may appear to be a paradox, the excessive software development that has taken place in the different areas of technology involved in creating these virtual environments has resulted in highly inefficient building technologies, which, in spite of using cutting-edge technology in their developments, require a large amount of manual work. This is due to the use of tools that have not been tailored to the needs of these simulations and to the lack of a continuous information flow between the various subsystems involved in the simulation. Such a flow ensures that the information transmitted is corrected, which includes the type of information as well as its precision, data formats, etc. This paper reflects all the research work aimed at developing a methodology whose aim is optimised automation in the generation of large virtual environments intended for railway driver simulations; that is, Modular Technology. This embraces the full cycle of a virtual environment generation by providing optimised solutions at every stage. All the theoretical approaches set out in this research have been validated as development tools in the creation of large virtual environments in railway driving simulators developed by CITEF, the Railway Technology Research Centre.