Tuesday, February 9, 2021

Interactive observation station: beyond the driving simulator

Being a train driver is not an easy job. Passenger safety is paramount in the performing of their duties and both professionals and apprentices must therefore go through exhaustive training, which in most cases includes train driving simulators.

In each operating company, the training team is in charge of getting the most out of the driving simulators, with the help of instructor work stations specifically designed to create, launch, modify and monitor driving sessions. However, the work of the instructors does not end there. New technologies open up new possibilities for simulator training.

When a driver is in the driving simulator, the rest of the group of trainees are usually sitting in front of a set of screens from where they view the exercise or exercises that are being executed and in this way receive training even when they are not in the simulator itself. To make this even more effective, the LANDER equipment allows the introduction of tools that allow these observers to play a more important part in the training.

In recent years LANDER has developed various functionalities such as the possibility of entering flags for the instructor, or answering an interactive questionnaire using individual physical clickers or private telephone devices connected to the classroom network. All these training tools allow observers to participate in the training in a much more active way. And not only that, because these interactions also allow the instructor to obtain global statistics such as the percentage of correct answers to the questions he or she asks and to gather more detailed information about those points where students have particular learning needs.

Training that is increasingly active and participatory not only helps the drivers themselves but also allows operators to make decisions at the corporate level in order to continue improving training to make it more agile and effective.

The continuous advance of technology offers training solutions that adapt to the new times, accompanying the continuous improvement of companies. And playing our part to support this improvement is definitely one of LANDER’s primary objectives.