Work-in-Progress—A Generalizable Virtual Reality Training and Intelligent Tutor for Additive Manufacturing

Abstract

There is currently significant demand for training in how to use metals additive manufacturing (AM) machines. Such training is important not only for the technicians who run and maintain the machines, but also for engineers and strategic decision makers who need to support AM part fabrication. Furthermore, there are a variety of AM machines, each with different details to be learned and potential hazards to overcome, and it is difficult to train more than a handful of users at one time. To address these challenges, a prototype training system has been developed, the AM Training Tutor, which uses interactive virtual reality (VR) to train users on a specific AM machine – the EOS M290. To make the training technology more widely available and expand its use across a variety of different AM machines, efforts are underway to develop a modularized and generic version of the AM Training Tutor that can be customized with relatively little effort to train users to operate other AM machines. This work-in-progress paper details the progress to-date, challenges and proposed solutions with the aim to demonstrate how standalone VR-based training systems can be redesigned for relatively easy repurposing and generalization.