AKT II visited the University of Bath to experience the brand new, state-of-the-art VSimulators platform. The Bath team welcomed Alessandro Margnelli, Emmanuel Verkinderen, Steven Daniels and Mingzhe He.
AKT II have been a key industrial partner in the development of VSimulators, being involved from the very beginning as a key contributor to the initial discussions, leading to the grant application to the EPSRC in 2016. They are a progressive, design-led structural and civil engineering firm, with current and complete projects in 44 countries worldwide.
The AKT II representatives had the opportunity to experience the full range of platform motion capabilities. Additionally, they explored the use of the projected virtual reality scenes and the environmental control. Dr Antony Darby (Principal Investigator) and Dr Jon Slade (Experimental Officer - Bath VSimulators) demonstrated how the facility operated and the technical range of capabilities. Julie Lewis-Thompson (Commercial Manager) explained in more detail about the joint capability offered by the VSimulators at both the Universities of Exeter and Bath, along with the availability for commercial use.
After the demonstration, Alessandro and his team met with several academics from the University of Bath to discuss future research collaborations both with AKT II and Tyrens, the parent company.
The AKT II team were extremely impressed by the opportunities these two unique platforms offered for future innovative exploration into understanding human factor experiences in response to the built environment.
These early stage collaborations are anticipated to evolve into exciting future opportunities for commercial applications and academic research with the Universities of Exeter and Bath, supported by AKT II, using the VSimulators platforms.