Schneider and XBS develop a simulator that reproduces the thrill of driving a Moto GP

Designed for the training of professional and semi-professional pilots, This simulator has virtual reality technology to achieve greater immersion in the environment, making the experience more realistic and conveying the thrill of riding a real large displacement motorcycle on a race circuit.

In collaboration with Schneider Electric, the startup XBS has developed an electric and sustainable motorcycle GP simulator under the premises of open innovation and collaboration. It features 5 Axes, allowing you to emulate skidding, Invested, merry-go-round, acceleration and folding, with a feeling of more than 200 kilometers per hour.

This simulator, that allows you to feel the thrill of driving a large displacement motorcycle on a racing circuit, has been conceived thanks to the joint collaboration of the Schneider Electric Training Institute (ISEF), XBS and the help of students from La Salle and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia.
XBS is a start-up formed by two Catalan entrepreneurs, that from their garage they began to work on the creation of Moto GP simulators for the training of professional and semi-professional pilots.

The result is an electric-only Moto GP simulator, with faster response, More efficient consumption that connects to the single-phase network. It is a solution where electric servo drive technology and the Schneider Electric control system are used..

It consists of three main elements. The mechanical part with the fairing of a motorcycle 1000 Real DC, that has been placed in a mechanical system of 5 axles and allows the team to simulate any movement that a real bike can make: acceleration/braking, Horse/inverted horse, Rear/front skidding and folding motion, Arriving at the 60%.

These movements are achieved thanks to the mechanical interconnection of different servo motors and electric axes, designed for the simulator to support users up to 100 Kilos.

User interaction with handlebar steering, Acceleration and braking grip, as well as the inclination of the motorcycle and the rest of the buttons is sent to the PC through an electronic card. and, thanks to a computer program, the PC breaks down the motion values of each of the electrical axes of the simulator and they are sent via Ethernet/OPC, in a very tight cycle time (<10Ms) to make it imperceptible to the user, to the PLC that governs the control of each of the axes.

This technology allows the user to live a realistic experience and feel the excitement of truly riding a large displacement motorcycle on a racing circuit.

The Schneider Electric solution

Among the challenges of the project, It was to go from the usual three axes to the five, that would allow you to live the real experience of driving an authentic Moto GP in a simulation process.

For the realization of the mechanical part has opted for the installation of Servomotors and Servodrivers (with single-phase power supply) of the Lexium range 32 by Schneider Electric. With five Lexiums 32 Schneider Electric PAS4x or MAXR five-axis linear motion can be controlled.

The control panel has all the necessary Schneider Electric electrical protections for each of the axes. The motion commands of each of the axes are provided by a logic controller (PLC), Schneider Electric's Modicon M241, via a CanOpen bus. The PLC collects the position of each of the axes and sends them via Ethernet and OPC-DA to the PC and receives the movement orders from the computer.

The control interface for the different game modes can be realized via an HMI display installed in the control panel and also via a webserver, connecting it via WiFi to the PLC. With the data received from the PLC and the data of the handlebar of the motorcycle, the PC interacts through a computer application. This allows different operating modes or the possibility of loading real telemetries for the refinement of the pilot on a particular circuit..

last, Virtual reality technology has been introduced to achieve greater immersion in the environment and make the experience more realistic and transmit the excitement of riding a real large displacement motorcycle on a racing circuit.

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