Virtual Reality mine experience
Explore your curiousity for a career in a mine and discover what the day-to-day is like with Mining VR.
Client
Community Economic Development Fund
Technology
VR Safety, Pico Neo 2 & 3
Location
Thompson, MB
Date
September, 2020
About this project
Mining VR is aimed at being a career exploration experience for the younger generations. This experience allows users to learn about working in a mine without putting them in any danger.
This simulation was broken down into two parts. Part 1 uses VRSafety to take you down into a mine. You start in the facility and learn about PPE, mining procedures, and other safety protocol. Next, you go down the elevator into the mine shaft where you explore the tunnels in 360 photos and videos where you’ll explore the equipment, garage, and some of the active areas.
Part 2 is a Virtual Reality game with two components. First, you start in the PPED room to get ready, grab your equipment, and learn about what is needed. Second, you move down into the mine where you get to do a few activities like rock scaling, marking an open hole, putting straps on a load for lifting.
Concept for this project
The Community Economic Development Fund (CEDF) wanted to produce a VR experience that would showcase northern Manitoba mining industry. The experience would be used for digital orientations and career exploration that would help educate high-school kids about the potential for a career in the mining industry.
BSD proposed a two-part plan that would include a 360-degree tour of the mine using our VRSafety virtual training platform. For the second part, we proposed a room-scale VR simulation that enabled students to interact in a virtual mine environment.
Northern Manitoba Sector Council, Hudbay Minerals, and Vale Canada also participated in this project.
Tech used in this project
The 360 portion of this project is built on our
VRSafety training platform, which can be viewed in a web browser or a VR headset. We built an app that launches VRSafety directly into Mining VR.
The 6-DoF portion of this project was built in Unity 3D for the Pico Interactive Neo 2 and Neo 3 standalone VR headsets.
Impacts of this VR simulation
Mining VR training provides students with an effective, immersive, and safe learning experience, preparing them for the challenges and demands of the mining industry. Mining VR training offers several benefits to students:
- Realistic and immersive experience: VR training provides students with a lifelike simulation of mining operations, allowing them to gain practical experience and a better understanding of complex tasks and equipment.
- Safe learning environment: Virtual reality eliminates the risks associated with hands-on training in hazardous mining environments. Students can practice various scenarios and procedures without endangering themselves or others.
- Skill development: VR training enables students to develop and refine critical skills required in the mining industry, such as equipment operation, spatial awareness, problem-solving, and decision-making. They can repeat tasks and receive immediate feedback to improve their proficiency.
- Cost-effective training: Traditional mining training often involves expensive equipment, travel, and on-site supervision. VR training significantly reduces these costs by offering a virtual platform that can be accessed remotely and repeatedly, minimizing travel expenses and optimizing training resources.
- Time efficiency: VR training allows students to accelerate their learning process by focusing on specific tasks or challenges. They can quickly progress through modules, repeat exercises, and master skills at their own pace, leading to more efficient training overall.
- Risk assessment and safety training: VR simulations can replicate hazardous scenarios, helping students develop risk assessment and safety protocols. By experiencing potential dangers virtually, students gain valuable knowledge and instincts for real-world safety precautions.
Overall, mining VR training provides students with an effective, immersive, and safe learning experience, preparing them for the challenges and demands of the mining industry.
Project take-aways
This project forced us to learn a lot more about the features and limitations of Pico headsets, working with open XR, and supporting multiple headsets . We also had to focus on mobile XR optimization, and creating spacious scenes in a limited play space.
The biggest thing we learned, though, was we created a really unique workflow to go from 360 photos as reference for our art team using VRSafety to produce the reference materials for creating the 3D scenes. We reconstructed the mine and the PPE room in VR using VR.
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