Design of a motion based sailing simulator

Abstract

The present work describes the design of a Sailing simulator that includes fundamental interaction stimuli and environmental phenomena such as wind and sea conditions, vessel and sails configuration, and actions performed by drivers on real maneuvers. The behavior of the simulator takes into account most of the static and dynamic effects caused by the wind, the pilots and the sea. The motion based simulator is operated by means of levers that control all maneuvers in the ship. Simulator feedbacks include audio, visual as well as inertial cues. An interactive simulation of the dynamics of the vehicle and of the environment physics is integrated into the interactive motion based sailing simulator in order to allow real time use within application. AU mathematical components have been integrated in a parametric way giving the possibility to choose among differents boats and sails types. Several environmental effects such as wind control, can be interactively controlled by a remote operator while the boat is navigating into a virtual scenario. In the following the main feature of the simulator system will be described together with the relevant activities performed to create the real-time model of the simulator. Some experimental results will also be provided. ©2010 IEEE.