BAGGAGECART DEFINITION

A Baggage Cart could be understood to designate two different kind of vehicles : a Tug, or a Dolly. In the Living World Configuration, "BaggageCart" designates only the Tug vehicle, while "BaggageDollies" designates the Dolly vehicles. In Airport Services, a BaggageCart is the whole entity of a Tug followed by Dollies.

 

The usual behavior for both is for a Tug to be followed by three Dollies, attached one behind the other. This entity can then accompany a BaggageLoader heading for an aircraft's cargo door, and place itself behind the Baggage Loader. When being created, both tugs and dollies are different, independent vehicles, and if configured properly, any tug should be compatible with any dolly.

 

A Baggage Tug vehicle has the same parameters as other Ground Vehicles, with some additional properties. In order to be attached to a dolly, a Tug should have an attach point, with an optional link moving left-to-right. In both cases (moving link or not), this has to be configured in sim.cfg, and a moving link should also use a model behavior.

Baggage Cart Example Within The Sim

 

Sim.cfg

The Sim.cfg file will need to have the following section added for a BaggageCart type of ground vehicle:

 

[WagonLink]

This section is for defining the way the different parts of the cart are linked. It can have the following parameters:

 

Parameter Description Type Required
frontLinkLength

The length, in meters, of the movable link at the front of the Tug, or 0 if the attach point is fixed without link.

 Float Yes
frontLinkStartPosition This is a single coordinate, expressed in meters, of the start position of the link along the front-to-back" axis of the vehicle. "Start position" here means the extremity of the link on the Tug side, which remains immobile relative to the Tug.
backLinkLength

The length, in meters, of the movable link behind the Tug, or 0 if the attach point is fixed without link.
backLinkStartPosition This is a single coordinate, expressed in meters, of the start position of the link along the "back-to-front" axis of the vehicle. "Start position" here means the extremity of the link on the Tug side, which remains immobile relative to the Tug.

 

 

Model Behavior Helper

If the Tug has a movable link, it should have an animation moving this link from left to right (or the other way around), linear regarding angle. Then, it should use the model behavior helper ASOBO_Wagon_Back_Link_Template (by including "Asobo.xml") with this animation in the ANIM_NAME parameter.

 

ASOBO_Wagon_Back_Link_Template also has three other parameters : ORDER_MULTIPLIER, MIN_ANGLE and MAX_ANGLE. The first one contains 1 or -1 depending on whether the animation start on the left side and end on the right, or the other way around. The two other parameters contain the angles of the link on the first and last frame of the animation, in degrees.

 

For more information please see: Ground Vehicle ModelBehavior Helpers

 

 

Baggage Dollies

A Baggage Dolly vehicle has the same parameters as other ground vehicles, with some additional properties. Note however that several of the usual parameters for ground vehicles do not make sense for a Baggage Dolly, such as the pilot parameters.

 

In order to attach to the Tug and the other Dollies, and Dolly should have an attach point on its back, with an optional link moving left-to-right, and another one on its front (still with an optional link). The back attach point (and optional link) work the exact same way as with the Baggage Tug.

 

In a very similar way, the front attach point (and optional link) have values in sim.cfg, and, in the case of link, an animation and associated model behavior. For sim.cfg, the corresponding lines are frontLinkLength and frontLinkStartPosition, in the same [WagonLink] section. For the model behavior, the helper is ASOBO_Wagon_Front_Link_Template, with the same parameters and requirements.

 

 

Note on Simvars

The constants defined in sim.cfg are stored in simvars:

  • WAGON BACK LINK LENGTH
  • WAGON BACK LINK START POS
  • WAGON FRONT LINK LENGTH
  • WAGON FRONT LINK START POSZ

These correspond retrospectively to backLinkLength, backLinkStartPosition, frontLinkLength, and frontLinkStartPosition.

 

The model behavior templates are also driven by the following dynamic simvars:

  • WAGON BACK LINK ORIENTATION
  • WAGON FRONT LINK ORIENTATION.