What the Future Holds

What the Future Holds

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
It's a method used by the construction industry for years to train employees to operate trucks and heavy machinery. Now agribusiness is beginning to incorporate its own form of virtual simulation systems for training in combine and farm equipment operation.

We're trying to pull in every sense we can. So you have a motion scene. It's going rocking back and forth. You're going to feel the engine are PMS rev up, ramp down, all the bumps, all everything in there. You have to have your seat belt on. It's going to jerky back and forth. We have sudden stops that we want in there.

Eric Wilcox of Growmark says these systems also come with surround screens and virtual goggles, all designed to give those being trained a sense of not only how to drive and control their equipment, but more importantly, what to watch out for to avoid an accident in the field or roadway. “We're trying to pull in every sense we can't, no matter what you get in that training for an environment comes back.” With future virtual training systems potentially incorporating technological advances such as autonomous farm equipment.

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