Virtual reality integrates training programs in the engineering sector
Safran Engineering Services, a subsidiary of Safran specialized in high-tech engineering services and expert in digital transformation, implements digital and technological solutions throughout the world. The company supports its customers in the development, industrialization and commissioning of products, using innovative methods and tools.
SkyReal is one of them. Its VR training solution now allows the company to create virtual reality training courses adapted to the needs of its customers, starting with Safran companies.
The first application cases based on SkyReal focused on the creation of technical training courses, adapted to the needs of Safran’s operational staff and their customers.
For the operators, it is a question of training on the installation or the repair of the manufactured equipment and for the Group to accompany its product offer with certifying training.
This enables customers to acquire the skills they need to maintain the equipment they have purchased.
Extensive immersive training thanks to virtual reality
“The immersive training courses we create with SkyReal use the existing 3D design data of Safran equipment and do not require additional modeling,” explains Gérard Coumes, Innovation Manager at the Safran Engineering Services site in Toulouse.
“In addition, the existence of native models integrated into the tool makes it possible to structure the training project and make it easily editable, without having a special knowledge in computer development,” he adds.
These Virtual Reality training courses also allow for cost optimization. Indeed, it is no longer necessary to mobilize equipment, nor to bring together instructors or learners physically on the same site.
The training takes place in a “metaverse” where everyone can access remotely. And the pedagogical performance is there. The procedures to be followed are infinitely repeatable. They are accompanied by voice instructions in addition to visual ones to increase concentration and can integrate unexpected events.
Fixes and continuous improvement with immersive virtual reality
In use, the solution also points out recurrent errors and encourages making effective corrections to the original design. Finally, SkyReal tracks learners’ learning paths, records errors, and provides success scores and qualifying evidence.
The first pilot training carried out with SkyReal allowed them to demonstrate the accessibility and the speed of the technology to produce content, and to adapt it to the business needs.
In a first step, Safran Engineering Services will develop new immersive training, adapted to the equipment and to the needs of Safran companies. And after the training will certainly come other application cases. The use of virtual reality in the industrial sector is just beginning.
