Recipient organisationUniversity of ExeterSource-published name: University of Exeter
Funding£3.2M
PeriodApr 2017 — Apr 2021
In plain English
AI plain-English summary
A pair of motion simulators will shake, tilt, and vibrate volunteers inside climate-controlled rooms to find out how people actually feel when buildings sway, floors bounce, or footbridges wobble. As cities build taller and structures become lighter and more flexible, engineers lack reliable data on human tolerance to low-frequency motion. Current design guidance is based on outdated assumptions, not real human responses. This facility fills that gap by measuring both physiological reactions—heart rate, balance, muscle tension—and psychological comfort while people experience controlled motion in realistic virtual environments. If successful, the research will produce evidence-based vibration serviceability standards for tall buildings, grandstands, footbridges, and lively floors. That means architects and engineers could design lighter, more sustainable structures without making occupants uncomfortable or anxious. The simulators will also support research into assisted mobility and rehabilitation for people with balance disorders. By making buildings both safer and more pleasant to occupy, the work quietly improves something most people never think about—until a skyscraper sways in the wind or a footbridge starts to bounce.
View original technical description
VSimulators is a worldwide unique facility for exploring how people experience motion and vibrations in the build environment, such as sway in tall buildings, vibration of lively floors, or movement of footbridges. The facility consists of a pair of simulators located at the Universities of Bath and Exeter providing complementary capability in mimicking motion and environmental factors in the built environment. Using hydraulic actuators driving a climate controlled room, the Bath machine can simulate biaxial movement at ultra-low frequencies with large amplitudes primarily to study comfort and health of occupants in tall and super tall buildings which are proliferating in cities across the world. The Exeter machine uses a 6-axis electric 'hexapod' actuation system supporting a rigid 4 meter square platform. This will simulate multi-axis motion primarily to study comfort of humans using footbridges, floors and grandstands vibrating in response to occupant dynamic forces. The Bath machine will incorporate peripheral video displays of internal and external environment, systems for sophisticated environmental control and measurement of occupant physiological and psychological reactions, while the Exeter machine will use sophisticated virtual reality and full capability for force identification and motion capture of occupants. Using shared equipment (e.g. treadmills, inertial sensors, optical motion capture) and technical support the complementary capabilities will be applied to research human-structure interaction (based upon human comfort, well-being and productivity), assisted mobility and rehabilitation and populate a spectrum of vibration serviceability guidance. The facility will provide a worldwide unique capability available to researchers and practitioners from a range of industries and backgrounds. Together with this multi-disciplinary network of people, VSimulators' unique capability will transform what research we are able to do and how we carry out that research.
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