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Southampton, Pa.-May 12, 2005-- Environmental Tectonics Corporation (AMEX:ETC) ("ETC" or the "Company") has achieved final acceptance of its ADMS-DRIVE™ Airport Ground Vehicle Driving Simulator by the Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority (MNAA).
Located in the Training Facility at Nashville International Airport, the Driving Simulator utilizes a virtual environment of the entire airport complex, with an extremely high level of detail. The environment includes exact replications of every runway light, sign and marking, all in the correct size and location. The environment also incorporates autonomously operating SmartModels™, replicating a busy metropolitan airport. These include aircraft at gates, taxiing, taking off and landing, as well as all types of service vehicles and personnel. ADMS-DRIVE uses an actual vehicle cab for the main driver station. For this project, the cab is an Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting (ARFF) Vehicle. The simulator also incorporates accurate vehicle handling dynamics for a range of vehicles. This allows training for drivers of fire trucks, ambulances, police vehicles, snow removal equipment, operations vehicles, baggage tugs, service trucks, etc., in a real-time, interactive, environment. The cab includes interior touch-screen panels, which are used to replicate vehicle-specific gauges and controls. Additionally, the system is outfitted with firefighting equipment such as a fully controllable virtual HRET (High Reach Extendible Turret) with a FLIR (Forward Looking Infrared) camera, which works in harmony with the synthetic environment. The simulator includes a sophisticated Scenario Generator, which allows training instructors to develop an unlimited number of driving exercises. They can conduct training in day, dusk, or night environments, introduce weather conditions such as wind, rain, snow, dust, fog, and ice, and place hazards on the airport, from debris on the runways to erratically driving vehicles or aircraft backing out in front of the trainee driver. Also included is OASIS™, an automated Objective Assessment and Scoring Information System which allows the instructor to generate reports of trainee performance for after-action review. In addition to the main driver station, MNAA also has a Desktop Driver Trainer (DDT) station, featuring a three-screen wide field-of-view, a map monitor, steering wheel and throttle/brake assembly. The DDT allows team driver training to be conducted in a common environment with the full cab station, where trainees are able to see and respond to each other's actions. This allows for coordinated training for incident response as well as maintenance activities like team snowplow operation. MNAA plan to use the simulator to provide airport personnel with training in airport orientation and familiarization, runway incursion avoidance, runway safety inspections, airport fire and emergency response, Police Department training, Airside Operations Area (AOA) driving procedures, aircraft servicing, and snow removal procedures. Dan Masters, Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority's ARFF Training Officer said "I am very impressed with the Driving Simulator designed for us by ETC. This will be a beneficial tool for years to come." With the MNAA simulator now in operation, ETC has further bolstered its' position as the leading supplier of Airport Driving Simulators, and is actively working with several other major airports, both in the U.S. and overseas, for the provision of Driving Simulators. ETC is the creator of the Advanced Disaster Management Simulator (ADMS™). ADMS is the only virtual reality simulator available today that allows the authentic simulation of incidents such as aircraft accidents, terrorist activities, structural fires, major road traffic accidents, wildfires and natural disasters, for training, planning and validation purposes. ADMS-DRIVE is a stand-alone simulation solution and can operate as a component of an ADMS system, allowing ARFF responders to drive to the scene of an incident and mitigate the threat. |
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