Department of Mechanical and Structural Engineering and Materials Science at University of Stavanger is a partner of an ERASMUS + Project that is aimed at creating strong partnerships between the world of education and the business world, to develop technical-professional training opportunities strongly anchored to the needs of companies in the European aerospace supply chain.
The project's focus in Norway is on the process industry (e.g. oil and gas), engineering contractors, and manufacturing industry. It requires education and research to investigate potential methods that can lean the overall operational activities (i.e. minimize waste of time and costs, increase revenue, improve health, safety/security and environmental challenges, etc.). In the offshore petroleum industry, the engineering contractors and manufacturing industry (i.e. sub-contractors) in Norway require immersive mixed and extended reality learning to enhance integrity of plants and operating assets (i.e. design integrity – effective design review; operational integrity – effective training as specified in internal and regulatory requirements; and Technical integrity – inspection and maintenance) similar to the aircraft industry. Especially, similar to aircraft industry, the aforementioned involves large capital investments, high operating costs, potential hazards type operations, and the serious impact of the accidents to the society, environment, and property.
The advanced simulation in virtual (or augmented/mixed/exnteded) reality environments such as entire power plants and refineries (e.g. such as SmartPlant concepts) are currently under the education and research activities within immersive training discipline. The use of augmented/virtual/mixed/extended realities and simulation that comes from immersive learning allows the validation of operational procedures of the systems, optimization of startup and shutdown sequences of lines, the immersive training of operators and the following evaluation of results achieved, the simulation of faults and failures and their management in the regional industry. Apart from the educational environments they would immensely help academics to convey complex concepts in an easily understandable means with less effort and high productivity with anticipated outcome from the educational sector.
Also, immersive mixed reality for manufacturing and offshore sector related training is the focus in teaching in complex manufacturing and asset integrity assessment/control of complex offshore systems as these systems involved considerable amount of resources, which requires training workers and developing new skills. Increasing the effectiveness of those processes and reducing the investment required is an outstanding issue. Hence, the modern metaphors such as collaborative mixed reality enable to transmit procedural knowledge and could eventually replace other forms of face-to-face training (e.g. a mixed reality setup with see-through cameras attached to a Head-Mounted Display, real-time collaborative interactions, and simulated conventional forms of training are the focus).
Currently, research and education work focused on implementing in developing complex product manufacturing procedures (e.g. aircraft maintenance door, sub-sea systems, etc.). It is advantageous to have immersive learning as the performance levels in the immersive mixed reality training are not significantly different than in the conventional face-to-face training condition.
Hence, current focus is to provide training and the use of virtual reality, mixed reality, and augmented reality paradigms in UiS higher education system.
Read more about the project here.
Facts
- Start Date: 01-11-2018
- End Date: 31-10-2020
- Project Reference: 2018-1-IT01-KA202-006836
Project Partners
Educational partners:
- Politechnika Rzeszowska Im Ignacego Lukasiewicza Prz
- Istituto Tecnico Settore Tecnologico "E.FERMI"
- University of Stavanger
- Institut Illa dels Banyols
Industrial partners:
