A Digital Twin of a Heat Pump with a Game Engine for Educational Use

This study introduces a Digital Twin (DT) of an air-to-water heat pump to be used in the maintenance training of secondary and Higher Education (HE) students as well as personnel and customers of companies that sell and maintain heat pumps. The DT presented introduces the learner to two key maintenance procedures in a Virtual Reality (VR) environment. The learning is based on the progress of completing the sub-tasks in an intended order. The implementation of the solution is described. A preliminary user study confirms that a DT of a heat pump is an attractive option as a VR learning environment for training maintenance procedures and tasks due to the positive learning and user experience. However, a few participants would prefer using a real system in the learning of maintenance tasks as compared to the DT. The ratings of perceived immersiveness measured as the concentration on the tasks, rather than on using the system indicate that there is room for improvement. Realism and immersiveness of carrying out tasks and actions in VR could be improved by implementing more realistic haptics as well as more freedom to carry out the maintenance procedures in a user selected order after first learning the correct order.