Development of an object oriented framework for the simulation of earth moving operations

The paper overviews the development of an object oriented framework for the definition, simulation and analysis of earth moving projects. The classes and the behaviors they encapsulate are presented. These include graphical, simulation, data collection, statistical analysis, and reporting behaviors. The discussed method offers numerous benefits, including a friendly user interface, a flexible and scaleable environment, as well as the ability to easily extend the supported functionality without changing the existing modules. This approach was used to implement a special purpose simulation environment for earth moving by the name AP2Earth. The implementation was further tested within a construction company in Alberta (USA)