Employee Training in an Intelligent Factory Using Virtual Reality

The article presents the results of research on the impact of virtual reality on the effectiveness of training employees performing production tasks. The research was carried out in the Smart Factory laboratory, which is a model of a smart factory functioning in accordance with the concept of Industry 4.0. A prototype VR system and its building process were presented, starting with the digitization of the laboratory, through logical programming and connecting peripheral devices. The subject, scope and plan of conducting comparative studies of operator training at both real production stations and in a virtual environment were presented. As a criterion for comparing the results achieved by individual groups subject to the study, the following were adopted: the time to complete the production task and the number of non-compliant products achieved in real conditions.