You have to put on the helmet, grab the steering wheel, the joystick and calibrate the machine by pressing a button.
And here you are at the controls of a harvesting machine even though you haven't left the classroom at the Rivesaltes Agricultural Apprentice Training Center.
This feat is made possible by the acquisition of a lightweight simulator, a first in France, developed by Studio Nyx.
“There are classic simulators with cabins,” explains Abdelkader Rebahi, in charge of digital development for Agricampus 66, “but this is completely different since we can move the equipment in the rooms as needed.
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The matter is not easy to handle.
Once he has provided you with the headset, Abdelkader Rebahi launches the program.
To begin with, it involves completing a course in a parking lot, between cones.
The joystick has the exact sensitivity of a real grape harvesting machine.
Some plots will not survive.
“This allows us to introduce students or trainees to operating the machine, whether on the road or in the vineyards, and to carry out work simulations.
But also to make them aware of safety rules.
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In the near future, the agricultural school will acquire other modules to complete the range of teaching.
“We will have access to a module for driving a tractor in particular.
» The system also makes it possible to do mechanics virtually when the establishment's machines are not available or to simulate accidents, situations impossible to recreate in real life.
The exercise ends, we count the overturned blocks and we say to ourselves that it is fortunate that this session was only… virtual.