- 1 · Rest
- 2 · Traverse
- 3 · On the period
- 4 · Half out
We built a browser trainer where a banksman directs a gantry crane by hand signal, with the load hanging on a physics joint so it behaves as a real pendulum. We wanted to fault trainees whose load swung too much, so we measured what swing actually looks like. Twice we measured the wrong thing, and the number that matters turned out to be when you stop.
What we measured
| Measure | Guessed | Measured | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Peak swing during a traverse | assumed to vary | 9.76° | Identical in every run, 0.8 s to 3.0 s |
| Swing left, stopping on the period | n/a | 1.00° | 2.10 s traverse |
| Swing left, stopping half a period out | n/a | 18.25° | 1.10 s traverse; 18.28° over the demo's slightly longer watch |
| Instant reading at that same worst stop | n/a | 0.19° | The load passing through vertical |
| Pendulum period, 1.1 m rope | n/a | 2.10 s | 2π√(L/g), matched by the rig |
| Swing fault threshold | 18°, then 10° | 20°, gross excursions only |
What happens next
- Score the stop directly: how close to a whole period the trainee brings the traverse to rest.
- Vary the rope length between runs, so the period changes and the timing cannot be memorised.
- Check the hand-pose heuristics against real hand tracking in a headset, rather than simulated poses.
The book behind the lab
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Next experiment
Finishing every step and still failing the isolation →
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