GB1000991A - Improvements in tank trainers - Google Patents

Abstract

1,000,991. Training drivers. MILES ELECTRONICS Ltd. Jan. 15, 1964 [Oct. 15, 1962], No. 38929/62. Heading B7H. [Also in Division G2] In a training device which simulates driving a military tank, a monitor 8 visible through a periscope 10 in a driving vehicle 11 displays the terrain of a relief model 1 as viewed by a closed circuit television camera 5 through an optical system 6 positioned on the model 1 in response to positional signals derived by a computer 13 from control signals transmitted by transducers connected to simulated driving controls in the cubicle 11. The camera image is transmitted through a vision controller 7 to the monitor 8 and to a monitor 9 on an instructor's control unit 19 including control members for overriding those in the cubicle 11, and means for simulating engine failure or faults in the vehicle. An indicator 16 reproduces movements of the camera 5 and optical system 6 over the model 1 on a contoured chart 18. The control members in the cubicle 11 include foot and hand brakes, steering brakes, a throttle control and a gear selector, each spring-loaded or coupled to an hydraulic system simulating the degree of reaction encountered in a real vehicle. Engine temperature gauges, oil pressure gauges and warning lights in the cubicle 11 are duplicated on the instructor's unit 19. A loudspeaker 20 in the cubicle 11 relays sound effects from the computer 13. Servomotors 14, 15 controlled by the positional signals from the computer 13 displace a trolley 4 carrying the camera 5 and optical system 6 across a gantry 2, and the gantry 2 along rails 3. The optical system 6 (Fig. 4) includes a shoe 50 pivotally suspended and spring-loaded to simulate movement of a vehicle over the model 1. A transducer 62 transmits the pitch attitude of the shoe 50 to the computer, and a mirror 54 is maintained at a constant height above the shoe by a height transducer 68 and a height servomotor 69 controlling the extension of telescopic tubes 53, 70. The mirror 54 is connected to the shoe by a linkage (Fig. 5, not shown) which rotates the mirror in the pitching direction by half the pitching motion of the shoe. A collimating lens 77 above the mirror 54 transmits the mirror image to a second mirror 79 and the camera 5 through a dove prism 72 rotated to add roll effect to the image by a servomotor 76 controlled by a transducer 74 connected to the shoe 50. A heading servomotor 49 which orientates the shoe 50 and the mirror 54 in the steering direction dictated by the computer 13 modifies rotation of the dove prism to eliminate effects imposed on roll by steering. In another embodiment (Fig. 2, not shown) a lens mounted above a mirror rigidly carried by the shoe transmits the image to the camera through a flexible fibre optics tube. The cubicle 11 may be pitched and rolled by an hydraulic system controlled from the pitch and roll transducers on the shoe 50 or on an additional shoe moving over a relief model replacing the contoured chart 18.