BENGALURU: Soon, the drivers of the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) will get their training on three-dimensional bus driving simulators, which will be installed in Hassan and Hubballi.
Rajendra Kumar Kataria, managing director, KSRTC, said, “The simulators will be installed using the funds given by the World Bank and we have already floated a global tender for this as not many companies in the country can design them according to the specifications provided by us.”
Unlike other driving simulators, these are not going to be like video games, a KSRTC official said. The simulators will have 3-D vision and will be based in real time with multi-vehicle configuration suiting the driving conditions of KSRTC buses.
The fund for setting up simulators will be provided by the World Bank under the Sustainable Urban Transport Project (SUTP). Kataria said the proposal was given to him by World Bank officials after taking into consideration the intelligent transport system (ITS) being implemented in Mysuru.
KSRTC will buy two simulators which will be self-contained and configurable for three variants of vehicles like Ashok Leyland, Tata (manual transmission), and Volvo and Benz suitable for both manual and automatic transmission with a computer generated imagery (CGI) out of the window visual scene.
“It will also be weather-sensitive, giving the trainees a feel of driving in conditions like fog and rain. The simulators will be based in real time, where the drivers can feel the humps, potholes and other road conditions, which will help us train them better,” Kataria said.
The cabin of the simulator will provide front and side window display systems to simulate view as physically available in the buses giving 180 degree horizontal field of view.
The instructor will be able to create real-time hurdles for the trainee and the behaviour of the trainee driver will be recorded through a web cam, which will assist the instructor in understanding the driver and help him train better.