Schneider and XBS develop a simulator that reproduces the emotion 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 transmitting the emotion of driving a real large-displacement motorcycle on a racing 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 has 5 axles, which allows you to emulate skids, inverted, horses, acceleration and folding, with a feeling of more than 200 kilometers per hour.

This simulator, that allows you to feel the excitement of driving a large displacement motorcycle on a racing circuit, It 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, who from their garage began to work on the creation of Moto GP simulators for the training of professional and semi-professional riders.

The result is a purely electric Moto GP simulator, with a faster response, more efficient consumption and that connects to the single-phase network. This is a solution that uses electric servo drive technology and the Schneider Electric control system..

It consists of three main elements. The mechanical part with the fairing of a motorcycle 1000 cc real, that has been placed in a mechanical system of 5 axes and allows the team to simulate any movement that a real motorcycle can make: acceleration/braking, horse/inverted horse, rear/front skid and folding movement, arriving at 60%.

These movements are achieved thanks to the mechanical interconnection of different servomotors and electric axes., designed so that the simulator supports 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. Y, thanks to a computer program, The PC breaks down the movement values ​​of each of the simulator's electrical axes and they are sent via Ethernet/OPC, in a very tight cycle time (<10ms) so that it is 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 driving a large displacement motorcycle on a racing circuit..

The Schneider Electric solution

Among the challenges of the project, was going 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.

To carry out the mechanical part, the installation of Servomotors and Servodrivers has been chosen. (with single phase power) from the Lexium range 32 Schneider Electric. With five Lexium 32 can control the movement of five linear axes PAS4x or MAXR from Schneider Electric.

The control panel has all the necessary Schneider Electric electrical protections for each of the axes. The movement commands for each of the axes are provided by a logic controller (PLC), the Modicon M241 model from Schneider Electric, 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 done through an HMI screen installed on the control box and also through a webserver., connecting it via WiFi to the PLC. With the data received from the PLC and the data from the motorcycle handlebars, the PC interacts through a computer application. This allows different modes of operation or the possibility of uploading real telemetries for driver improvement on a particular circuit..

Finally, Virtual reality technology has been introduced to achieve greater immersion in the environment and make the experience more realistic and convey the excitement of driving a real high-displacement motorcycle on a racing circuit..