Providing students with a more practical and interactive way to engage with the use of excavators on a construction site led Dr. Johnson Shen (Associate Professor, Civil Engineering) to invest in the building of several remote controlled excavator models. While successful the classes are very large and bringing the concept into virtual reality would allow whole classes to participate at the same time while bringing in other aspects of the construction site for the students. The VR Civil Excavator Simulation allows for multiple scenarios with some concerned more with efficiency and others safety or new site layout practices - all while allowing the students to explore, experiment and repeat the lessons to reinforce the learning.
Project Details
There is significant complexity in the creation of a simulation for a civil engineering site and the excavators and trucks there. While VR immersed the player in the sights and sounds of the site, there are motion sickness limitations and the number of controls to take into account. This project build upon an earlier proof of concept and already allows students to some basic tasks as they take to the controls of a large excavator.
The demo has been used in several High School promotion events for both Civil Engineering and Built Environment Construction Management.
TECHNOLOGY & DEVELOPMENT
The active design and development of the project continues in collaboration with Civil Engineering. The staff and work integrated learning student developers are using the Unity game engine to bring together all the elements and deliver the VR experience using our Meta Quest 3 headsets.
Credits
Key Academics
Johnson Xuesong Shen (Associate Professor in Intelligent Construction, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering)
Cynthia Changxin Wang (Associate Professor, Construction Management & Property, ADA)
Diya Yan (Research Assistant, Construction Management & Property, ADA)
Design, Production and Development
Xueqing (Sherry) Lu (Immersive Technology Specialist and Developer, PVC Education)
Work Integrated Learning Student Placements
Gaoling Wang (Master of Simulation and Immersive Technology Capstone)
Bairui Chen (Master of Simulation and Immersive Technology Capstone)
Faris Jalal (Software Engineering Thesis)
Get Involved
There are internal Teams Channels, Miro Boards and working groups covering the development collaboration with Civil Engineering academics. To find out more, join the team, get a demo or have your class or promotion use-case included just get in touch.
- Email: [email protected]
There are internal Teams Channels, Miro Boards and working groups covering the development collaboration with Civil Engineering academics. To find out more, join the team, get a demo or have your class or promotion use-case included just get in touch.
- Email: [email protected]