Apparatus for simulating mobility of a human

Apparatus for simulating mobility of a human operator comprising

• a base,
• a pair of foot supports movably mounted on the base for receiving and supporting the feet of an operator, said foot supports moving in response to movement of the operator's feet,
• resistive force means coupled to the foot supports for applying a resistive force to movement of the foot supports in response to condition signals,
• a movement sensing means for sensing movement of the operator and producing movement signals indicating the movement of the operator to the control means,
• display means responsive to display signals for developing scenes viewable by the operator, and
• control means for receiving the movement signal from the movement sensing means, supplying display signals to the display means to determine the scenes displayed, and for supplying condition signals to the force means to selectively vary the resistive forces applied to the foot supports.

An assembly comprising a plurality of individual person mobility simulators, each of said simulators for accommodating a different operator, each of said simulators comprising;

• a base for placement on a support surface;
• platform means mounted on the base to rotate about a generally vertical axis;
• a steering post extending upwardly from the platform means, to terminate in an upper end;
• seat means mounted on the upper end of the steering post, on which a human operator may sit;
• means for detecting torque/displacement applied to the seat means generally about said vertical axis;
• first power means responsive to the detecting means detecting torque/displacement for rotating the platform means relative to the base;
• pedal means rotatably mounted on the steering post and including two pedals on which the operator's feet may be placed to pedal and rotate the pedal means;
• second power means coupled to the pedal means for supplying a resistive torque to the pedal means to provide a resistance to pedalling by the operator, in response to the resistance signals;
• control means for selectively supplying resistance signals to the second power means;
• display means for developing scenes viewable by the operator, in response to display signals, said scenes comprising changeable views of various ground terrain including uphill, level and downhill, produced in response to various respective display signals, and wherein said control means includes means for supplying display signals to the display means, means for supplying resistance signals to the second power means to increase the resistance to pedaling when uphill terrain is displayed and decrease resistance when downhill terrain is displayed, and means for supplying display signals to the display means to change the scenes displayed in response to pedal signals;
• means for detecting rotation of the pedal means and for supplying pedal signals to the control means;
• wherein each control means of each of said simulators further includes means for producing data identifying the location of an icon representing the respective operator in the scenes, relative to the other operators;
• means for supplying such data to the control means to the other simulators;
• and
• means responsive to such data for supplying display signals to the respective display means for causing the respective display means to display scenes showing icons of the other operators.