Virtual Reality Education Modules for Digital Manufacturing Instruction

There is an imminent need to remedy the ‘skills gaps’ in the digital manufacturing (DM) sector as evident from the Bureau of Labor Statistics projections pointing to a decline in traditional manufacturing jobs accompanied by marked growth in digitaland computer-driven manufacturing jobs. With proven advantages such as cost benefits, material conservation, minimized labor, and enhanced precision, manufacturing industries worldwide are adapting to digital manufacturing standards on a large scale. In an effort to remedy the lack of well-defined DM career pathways and instructional framework, our NSF ATE (Advanced Technological Education) project MANEUVER (Manufacturing Education Using Virtual Environment Resources) is developing an innovative pedagogical approach using virtual reality (VR). This multimodal VR framework DM instruction targeted at 2-year and 4-year manufacturing programs, facilitates the development of VR modules for multiple modes such as desktop VR, Augmented VR, and Immersive VR. The advantages of the virtual reality framework for digital manufacturing education include: significant cost reduction, reduction in equipment and maintenance costs, ability to pre-visualize the product before manufacturing. This paper introduces the design and development process of VR education tool to simulate three different additive manufacturing machines, e.g., LutzBotTM, FormLabsTM, and UPrintTM and different 3D printing technologies e.g., fused deposition modeling, and selective laser sintering to allow the students experience the materials and equipment needed to create the same part using different types of equipment and different types of technology.