DOK-ING Mining Simulator
DOK-ING is a world-leading manufacturer of unmanned vehicles, and their underground mining division sits at the top of that market. Their machines operate in some of the most extreme conditions in extractive industries — ultra-low seam platinum mines where conventional equipment simply cannot go. Three specialized vehicles form the core of their mining lineup: a drill rig that bores into the panel face, a dozer that clears and pushes ore onto the conveyor after blasting, and a support vehicle that drills roof bolts to secure the working area. Every one of them is remotely operated via a dedicated controller.
The Training Challenge
The complexity of these machines is exactly what makes them valuable. It’s also what makes training operators so difficult.
Before the simulator existed, DOK-ING’s operator training ran for two full months. Trainees spent weeks on theory before getting hands-on time with the real machines — and machine availability was always the bottleneck. With more operators to train than vehicles available, time on the actual equipment was precious and limited.
The Solution
The deeper problem was that even after completing the full two-month program, some operators simply weren’t suited for the work. Precision driving in near-total darkness, reading spatial cues through a remote feed, maintaining efficiency under pressure – these aren’t skills everyone develops at the same pace. The industry, especially in energy and mining, runs on efficiency. Time spent discovering that an operator isn’t the right fit for a role is time and cost that compounds across every cycle. DOK-ING came to Delta X with a clear challenge: build a simulator that lets operators learn the machines before ever setting foot near one.
The Result
The scope of the project required us to create accurate digital twins of all three vehicles and pair them with the actual physical controllers DOK-ING operators use in the field. The experience had to be functional, not approximate — the controller input, the machine response, the spatial environment of an underground mine, all of it had to translate into something that builds real muscle memory and genuine operational judgment.
A critical part of that fidelity is ore physics. The dozer’s primary job is efficiency — clearing blasted material and pushing it onto the conveyor with as few passes as possible. Without realistic physical behavior of the ore itself, that skill cannot be trained. Delta Reality implemented a full ore physics model so that operators learn to read how material moves, settles, and responds to the blade, developing the same efficiency instincts they’ll need on the real machine.
The result is a self-contained simulator unit that houses all three vehicle environments in a single portable setup. The unit ships directly to DOK-ING’s clients and training facilities, ready to run without complex installation or permanent infrastructure.
Underneath the simulation itself runs an analytics backend that tracks each operator’s session data — response times, precision metrics, decision patterns, error frequency. Every training run produces a structured record that tells trainers not just whether someone completed the module, but how they actually perform under pressure.
A Fully Custom Hardware Setup
Delta Reality delivered this as a complete turnkey solution. The hardware challenge was more complex than it might appear from the outside.
Standard VR setups assume the user’s hands are free and invisible. In this context, operators need to see their physical controller while wearing the headset — because the controller itself is part of what they’re learning. The muscle memory of finding the right lever or button without looking down is a trained skill, and the simulator had to preserve that. The HTC Vive XR Elite headset was selected and configured specifically to support this mixed-reality requirement, allowing operators to remain aware of the physical controller in their hands while fully immersed in the underground environment.
The communication between the physical controllers and the simulation presented its own engineering problem. DOK-ING’s controllers use proprietary protocols that don’t map to off-the-shelf input devices. Delta X developed custom hardware transceivers that connect the real controllers to the simulation PC via radio link, maintaining the same signal behavior an operator would experience on the actual machine. Nothing about the input chain was approximated.
The entire system is assembled from custom components around a Windows laptop and packed into a flight case — a rugged, portable unit that ships to training sites and trade show floors without requiring specialist setup. Everything runs from a single PC, keeping the footprint small and the logistics simple.
Project highlights
Three vehicle digital twins — drill, dozer, and support — each paired with the real physical controller via custom-built radio transceivers. Full ore physics simulation. Mixed-reality HTC Vive XR Elite setup allowing operators to see their controller while immersed. Entire system assembled from custom components, packed into a single flight case, and delivered as a turnkey solution. Operator analytics backend tracking every session. Training time reduced from two months to two weeks.
