Southern Illinois University - Obelisk Yearbook (Carbondale, IL)

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Dragline simulator-a miniature mine Southern Illinois is the only place in the world you can, with the slight- est stretch of your imagination, oper- ate a 40-million-pound coal mining dragline 14 stories high in a building no larger than a high school gym- nasium. You sit in a bonafIde Bucyrus-Erie dragline pilotls seat surrounded by bonafide Bucyrus-Erie controls in a room resembling as closely as possible a bonaiide dragline cab. As you ma- nipulate the controls you see a giant video screen an apparently huge boom and a toothed shovel swing and dig in what looks like an actual strip mine with farms and green hills around it. Features Behind you, a computer which can be programmed to imitate the actions of any of three makes of draglines keeps track of your errors and spits them out on command. To your right, in the corner, a much smaller Video screen waits to show you an instant replay of your mining operations. ttltls very realistic? said Keith Con- tor, an assistant professor in SIU-C;s department of technology. ttPeople will grab onto something to steady them- selves when they see the boom swing. Experienced operators say the stress and fatigue are the same as on a real draglinefl That may seem hard to believe, since the operators know that-rather than running a machine which is so expensive that major damage could put a small mine out of business- they are moving a boom and bucket no larger than the visible parts of a submarine periscope. The boom and bucket are suspended from a swivel in another room-a sort of sandbox with a painted striprnin- ing landscape for walls. Cameras at- tached to the base of the boom allow a magnified View of the scene and the digging to appear on the big screen in the mock cab-roomi ttThe picture may not be that good? Contor said, ttbut once people get 29 photo by Joe Szewculak

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babies in the past have tended to study those with additional problems trespiratory problems, for examplel, factors which may have led to the wrong conclusions. tlThe differences tin birth weightl donlt seem to mean a lot by the time the child is three. There arenlt many observable results, Mol- fese said. llWe controlled for these fac- tors in our experiment. If you can control factors like gestational age, the income level of parents, educa- tional level of parents, there isnt much difference? Controlling these variables enabled the Molfeses to test children of the same background. If funding is granted, Molfese hopes to rerun the study with infants of other backgrounds and see if the results hold. In studying the infants, clearance had to be given by the hospitals in- volved for the study. Women who had just given birth were interviewed and told about the research. If they were interested in having their child in the study, the infant was tested while in the hospital. Parents were allowed to observe the thirty to forty-five minute test, conducted at Carbondale Memo- rial and at Stanford in California. The babies were retested at six-month in- tervals and the data studied after each test. ttAt one point, our computer was broken for two years so we couldnlt analyze, we could only give the tests? said Molfese. The tests were completed a year and a half ago and analyzed in the year after the tests. Currently the responses are tape recorded, amplified, and brought back for analysis. Molfese and his col- leagues hope to adapt an Apple Com- puter so that only one machine is needed rather than bringing the re sponses back for analysis. Molfese became interested in the language process while a graduate student at Pennsylvania State where he received his masters in 1970 and 28 ne'nomazs aor Aq 010148 his doctorate in 1972. His wife, Vic- toria, also received her doctorate at Penn State 0979 after completing work for her masters at San Francisco State in 1970. The Molfeses each have their own research programs. Victoria, associate professor of psychology, has studied morbidity and the infants chances of . survival, the impact of fetal monitor- ing on parents, color perception in babies, and communication between the elderly. Dennis, professor of psy- chology, has researched neural lin-' guistics, how the brain is organized to process language, and has begun a long-term research project to study individuals from birth to age 80. While environmental factors are important in language development, the Molfesels study indicates that genetics may be a more important factor than previously thought. Their soon to be published research lindings could lead to procedures to correct and prevent language problems in the future. El -Joyce Vonderheide Features

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going on the controls, they really get: ,involved. Some of the operators who were testing it for us would come in for an hour or two after hours just to play with it. And this was after they,d been working all day on a real drag- line. Theyld bring in their sons and friends, and teach them how a drag- lineis runfl Though it is easy to see the simula- tor as an expensive toy, Contor said it does serve a vital purposewtraining of people who plan to become dragline operators. At present, the only way to learn the operation of a dragline is to simply take over the controls of one-a haz- ardous business with a machine that lifts a million pounds of dirt in one load and moves it to a new site in less than 65 seconds. llSmall mistakes-a half full bucket -can cost from $800 to $1000fi Contor said. iiThere are no computers like the ones the simulator has in a real drag- line, nothing to tell you what to don .Youive got to develop a feel, learn to recognize visual cues like the shadows of the boom and bucket? McDonnell-Douglas developed the dragline simulator and outlines for a training program for the Department nelnoMazs aor Kq oioqd 30 of Energy. SIU-C researchers inher- ited the project when the University took over the DOE,S Carbondale Min- ing Technology Center. In addition to the original 10-day operatoris program, Contor and his associates are developing programs for mine supervisors and managers which will assist in increasing mine activity. liKnowing how a dragline works will give them a better idea of what they can expect of operators? Contor said, adding that a trainee is usually ltpretty good,, after 15 hours on the simulator uwithout any damage or operating costs? The simulator is the last stage in the training program. Trainees iirst study workbooks, slides and video- tapes pertaining to dragline operation. They then move to the iDynamics Concept Trainer? an uncomputerized dragline simulator a little taller than a man which works basically like toy cranes in carnival games. The DCT ' familiarizes the trainee with boom and bucket movement, and with the visual cues of bucket-position. A sandbox model of a strip mine is also provided to assist in short-term planning. Using handscoops, an op- erator can forecast how much dirt he can move and to where he can move it. Though dragline-operating is tithe cushy jobethe one miners wantfl Contor said it involves much more than the mere digging and dumping of dirt. iiOperators have to plan roads, soil placement and mine drainage, Contor said. To make this planning more complex, environmental regula- tions require that strip miners leave the mined area in a condition equal to a or better than its original condition. Training of dragline operators aside, the computerized simulator still proves useful. An operator who suf- fered a radiation burn in one eye used the simulator to learn if he would still be competent with a real dragline despite his impaired Vision. SIU-C psychologists monitor students who are running a simulator to collect data on stress reactions. As to why southern Illinois was chosen as the site of the only dragline simulator in existence, Contor said, itThis area is unique. There are only a few big draglines in operation and this is probably the highest concen- tration of them in the world. E! wKevin Eldridge Features