Title: There is no spoon: applying virtual reality for maintenance training of rolling stock technicians

Authors: Alberto Martinetti; K. 't Hart; Roy Damgrave; L.A.M. Van Dongen; R. Turkenburg; Andre Nouwens

Addresses: Design, Production and Management Department, University of Twente, The Netherlands ' Design, Production and Management Department, University of Twente, The Netherlands ' Design, Production and Management Department, University of Twente, The Netherlands ' Design, Production and Management Department, University of Twente, The Netherlands; Netherlands Railways, The Netherlands ' Netherlands Railways, The Netherlands ' Netherlands Railways, The Netherlands

Abstract: Introducing into operations new rolling stocks requires re-educating technicians and operators for being able to properly work on new and different assets. The training sessions are often performed under substantial time constraints and with a lack of resources. Re-training the technicians is a cost intensive process as it is for training new employees. The aim of the paper is to test and evaluate a virtual reality (VR) training solutions to decrease costs and to increase technicians' availability, safety during maintenance operations and education performance with the support of Netherlands Railways (Nederlandse Spoorwegen - NS). Firstly, the study explores the possible maintenance tasks analysing the benefits for VR implementations; secondly, it evaluates the attitude of technicians trained with the proposed VR approach. Finally, it discusses the results and provides general applicable suggestions for the use of VR in other training activities.

Keywords: maintenance; virtual reality; VR; rolling stocks; training.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSSE.2018.094563

International Journal of System of Systems Engineering, 2018 Vol.8 No.4, pp.398 - 415

Received: 29 Jul 2017
Accepted: 22 Feb 2018
Published online: 06 Sep 2018 *

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