Distributed Asymmetric Virtual Reality in Industrial Context: Enhancing the Collaboration of Geographically Dispersed Teams in the Pipeline of Maintenance Method Development and Technical Documentation Creation (original) (raw)
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Applied Sciences
Training in virtual reality (VR) is a valuable supplementing tool for advancing knowledge transfer that results in increased efficiency and accuracy of technicians in fieldwork. However, COVID-19 pandemic restrictions made it impossible for VR training centers to operate on a full scale, forcing traditional face-to-face learning sessions to become remote. In this article, we investigate the asymmetric use of a VR training solution—among devices with different levels of immersion and control—to enrich the content of remote training sessions. The VR in this case can be seen as a source of visual and other contextual information to advance the effects of situated learning and enhance knowledge transfer. To evaluate this approach, we conducted a remote user study with ten industrial maintenance and installation experts. We also introduce the “Research Panel” tool to gather reactions of learners during the remote training session. The expert user study results demonstrate the usefulness ...
Using virtual reality in a large-scale industry project
2006
email: Thomas.Olofsson@ltu.se, http://construction.project.ltu.se/\~ebygg SUMMARY: The Swedish state-owned mining company LKAB has recently initiated the process of building a new pelletizing plant (MK3) in Malmberget, northern Sweden. The total expenditure will amount to €280 million and the new plant is expected to be operational around the turn of the year 2006-2007. Contractors are expected to employ a workforce of about 250 in connection with the construction of the plant, while some 150 consultants and engineers are engaged in the design phase. Since time to market is a crucial factor for LKAB, the contractual agreements for cooperation in the project support collaborative working methods such as concurrent engineering, open information flow and introduction of innovations in the design process. The complexity of the project, the number of actors involved and the desire to involve the client and the end-users, such as industrial workers responsible for the future plant operations, in the design work makes Virtual Reality (VR) an excellent enriched source of communications. This paper describes findings from a case study that sought to explore and document the practical work and experiences achieved, including some good examples, from using VR in the design and planning process.
Collaborative Work Enabled by Immersive Environments
Springer eBooks, 2023
Digital transformation facilitates new methods for remote collaboration while shaping a new understanding of working together. In this chapter, we consider global collaboration in the context of digital transformation, discuss the role of Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVEs) within the transformation process, present an overview of the state of CVEs and go into more detail on significant challenges in CVEs by providing recent approaches from research.
International Journal of Digital Earth, 2017
Today's workforce environments are steadily becoming more distributed across the globe, calling for improved ways of facilitating collaborations at a distance, including geo-collaborations or collaborations at critical locations. Newer technology is allowing distributed teams to move away from traditional conference rooms, taking collaborations into the field and giving remote teams more information about the environment. This idea of situating a remote collaborator's experiences in the field, virtually, promises to enhance the understanding of geographically remote spaces. Newer technologies in virtual reality (VR) hold promise for providing mobile spatial experiences in real-time, without being tied to fixed hardware, such as systems in conference rooms. An exploratory study using VR technology on remote user experiences in a collaboration was conducted to identify the added value for remote collaborators. The findings suggest immersive capabilities improve feelings of presence in the remote locations and perceptions of being in the remote location increase feelings of team membership.
Exploring the characteristics of immersive technologies for teamwork
2020
Teams are essential components of Defence Organisations where teamwork errors, whilst rare, can lead to fatal consequences (Baker, Day, & Salas, 2006). Due to the increased costs and risks of live training, these organisations are increasingly employing synthetic team training solutions. These are advocated as effective media for the training of teamwork (Delise, Allen Gorman, Brooks, Rentsch, & Steele-Johnson, 2010), with a growing interest in the adoption of immersive Virtual Reality (VR) systems. However, these technologies come with an increased cost of content development (Bogan, Bybee, & Bahlis, 2019) and are generally met by a resistance to change. Although, there is anecdotal evidence of a training benefit of immersive technologies, there is an opportunity to explore whether their innate features support teamwork. Therefore, in order to justify the procurement of immersive team training systems, there is a need for empirical research to ascertain the optimal technology architecture for training teamwork. In this paper we describe early results to empirically explore the support offered by technological immersion, presence, and psychological fidelity for teamwork. Specifically, we looked to examine the relationship between these constructs and their effect on participants' perceived ability to engage in teamworking behaviors. Participants were divided into 6 teams of 4 and were asked to play a cooperative COTS video game (PayDay 2) with either a desktop setup (low immersion) or an HMD setup (high immersion). The results suggest that participants in the HMD condition reported lower teamwork, lower presence, lower usability, and higher workload, when compared to the ones in the Desktop condition. We conclude that participants' lack of familiarity with the VR system may have represented an additional source of extraneous cognitive load, impeding them from engaging in teamwork as well as the participants in the Desktop condition. Lessons learned and implications for practice are discussed.
Springer, Cham, 2018
There still lacks a collaborative framework that integrates existing and new virtual reality systems supporting remote collaboration for data visualization. The collaborative framework currently available might limit the collaborators for collaboration because it is not developed to support interaction with diverse 3D applications while using heterogeneous virtual reality (VR) systems remotely in a synchronized way. We will present our collaborative framework that supports remote collaboration across heterogeneous VR systems to interact with multiple 3D applications. This system is independent of any VR systems and can be used to interact collaboratively in real-time on a shared task. Additionally, we conducted a pilot study to gain perspective on the usability of the system for collaborative work across heterogeneous VR systems. We will present the results on the usability of the system, and the results obtained from the users are motivating and encouraging. Our system has the potential to increase task effectiveness and workflow because it enables shared and real-time interaction while remotely collaborating with diverse 3D applications across heterogeneous VR systems.
Virtual Reality for Supporting Knowledge Sharing: An Exercise of Technology Assessment
European Conference on Knowledge Management
Knowledge sharing is an important process in knowledge management to foster collaboration. For itseffective management, it is often suggested to use the support of adequate technologies. Virtual reality (VR) is a promising technology whose application in business increasingly attracts attention in activities, such as business meetings or training, where participants need to share knowledge in a complex context with communicational, social, and management implications. Due to the immersive capabilities, VR may provide new ways of sharing knowledge. However, due to the novelty of this technology, research is needed to evaluate its potential and drawbacks. This study aims to contribute to further understanding of whether and how the introduction of VR in organizations can favour knowledge sharing and collaboration between employees and to evaluate its potential, challenges, and prospects. It is based on a qualitative exercise of technology assessment based on two approaches: technology...
2019 International Conference on Graphics and Interaction (ICGI), 2019
Rapidly changing customer demands, regulations and technologies drive the complexity of products, processes and production systems, as well as shorter product and factory lifecycles. In order to handle such complexity while decreasing the time-to-market, immersive virtual reality (VR) technologies are increasingly being used in industry to support product and factory lifecycle engineering processes, such as (re)design, validation and verification, learning and training. However, the design and development of multiuser VR training for complex and manual production processes remain a challenge for industry. The integration of VR training simulations with virtual and physical factories could support the handling of such obstacles in terms of efficiency and effectiveness by increasing the precision, accuracy and reliability of data used in VR simulations. In this study, we present a collaborative and coordinated VR training model and its data integration with virtual factory tools and manufacturing execution systems for a wind turbine assembly scenario. A demonstration has been performed and evaluated by industry experts. The preliminary evaluation results show that integrated collaborative VR training has significant potential for more efficient and effective training, as well as enabling new use cases for industry.
Visualization in Engineering, 2018
Introduction: A successful project delivery based on building information modeling (BIM) methods is interdependent on an efficient collaboration. This relies mainly on the visualization of a BIM model, which can appear on different mediums. Visualization on mediums such as computer screens, lack some degrees of immersion which may prevent the full utilization of the model. Another problem with conventional collaboration methods such as BIM-Big room, is the need of physical presence of participants in a room. Virtual Reality as the most immersive medium for visualizing a model, has the promise to become a regular part of construction industry. The virtual presence of collaborators in a VR environment, eliminates the need of their physical presence. Simulation of on-site task can address a number of issues during construction, such as feasibility of operations. As consumer VR tools have recently been available in the market, little research has been done on their actual employment in architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) practices. Case description: This paper investigates the application of a VR based workflow in a real project. The authors collaborated with a software company to evaluate some of their advanced VR software features, such as simulation of an on-site task. A case study of VR integrated collaboration workflow serves as an example of how firms can overcome the challenge of benefiting this new technology. A group of AEC professionals involved in a project were invited to take part in the experiment, utilizing their actual project BIM models. Discussion and evaluation: The results of the feedbacks from the experiment confirmed the supposed benefits of a VR collaboration method. Although the participants of the study were from a wide range of disciplines, they could find benefits of the technology in their practice. It also resulted that an experimental method of clash detection via simulation, could actually be practical. Conclusion: The simulation of on-site tasks and perception of architectural spaces in a 1:1 scale are assets unique to VR application in AEC practices. Nevertheless, the study shows the investment in new hardware and software, and resistant against adoption of new technologies are main obstacles of its wide adoption. Further works in computer industry is required to make these technologies more affordable.
A collaborative VR visualization environment for offshore engineering projects
Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Virtual Reality Continuum and Its Applications in Industry - VRCAI '11, 2011
The current way of designing industrial plants relies on the communication among experts in the field, and on tools that allow the simulation of the site. Virtual reality (VR) tools are used to visualize and interact with complex 3D environments in real time, and several engineering simulations employ VR to foresee the results of complex industrial operations. The research project described here presents a collaborative engineering environment (CEE) that integrates VR techniques into a system where the execution of different sequences of engineering simulations is modeled as scientific workflows. The focus of this research is on the oil & gas industry, particularly offshore engineering, where the project of a new production unit is a lengthy and expensive process and usually is conducted by different specialists who are geographically distributed. Among the integrated engineering simulations are those involving structural calculus, hydrodynamics, naval engineering with mooring systems, meteo-oceanography, and others. The main objective is to improve the users' interpretation capacity and skills while providing visualization tools for a better understanding of the results.