Research Project – Mixed Reality in the Loop
In our current research project, “MRiLS,” we at ROTH are asking ourselves: Can virtual and augmented reality improve the education and training of technical professionals?
Roth’s core competency—the development and commissioning of highly complex, custom-designed production systems—is always accompanied by on-site training and instruction for the customer’s employees, to ensure they learn how to operate the system. The rapid changes in the production landscape, the increasing complexity of automation solutions, and the existing shortage of skilled workers pose significant challenges in this regard. As a result, the training requirements for skilled workers are increasing, both in scope and complexity. Current training concepts also exhibit serious didactic and methodological shortcomings, particularly in the area of human-technology interaction.
For example, due to high production capacity utilization, industrial facilities are not always available for training purposes while they are in operation, so learning from a “live system” is not possible. Furthermore, certain scenarios and hazardous situations cannot be practiced directly on the equipment due to the high risk of injury. Current practices are insufficient for replicating individualized and interactive learning processes.
This is where Mixed Reality in the Loop Simulation (MRILS) comes into play—a hybrid interaction concept for training technical specialists. Detailed and customer-specific simulation models form the basis for this innovative training concept. With the help of augmented and mixed reality, dynamic, personalized, and unrestricted access to the specific learning object is enabled. Contrary to the disadvantages described above, technical specialists can be trained virtually at any time and encounter realistic system behavior thanks to state-of-the-art interaction capabilities and the direct integration of the training models with actual control behavior.
At Roth, we draw on our expertise in the fields of control and simulation technology to develop custom test models for our clients. In addition to generating the test models, this also involves analyzing training scenarios that are to be automatically integrated into the innovative simulation models. These are made available to the customer of the highly complex production facility so that operators can be trained in advance using the hybrid interaction concept. The challenge here lies in automating this process, as individual models must be generated for each customer.
Together with our partners at the Institute for Control Engineering of Machine Tools and Manufacturing Equipment (ISW) at the University of Stuttgart, the Chair of Adult Education and Continuing Education at Otto Friedrich University of Bamberg, and the Virtual Automation Lab (VAL) at Esslingen University of Applied Sciences, and the ISG Industrial Control Technology we are conducting research into the future.
Read more online on the website of MRILS or in the article by Process
