Smart Factory Using Virtual Reality and Online Multi-User: Towards a Metaverse for Experimental Frameworks

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) has been brought closer to the general public over the past decade as it has become increasingly available for desktop and mobile platforms. As a result, consumer-grade VR may redefine how people learn by creating an engaging “hands-on” training experience. Today, VR applications leverage rich interactivity in a virtual environment without real-world consequences to optimize training programs in companies and educational institutions. Therefore, the main objective of this article was to improve the collaboration and communication practices in 3D virtual worlds with VR and metaverse focused on the educational and productive sector in smart factory. A key premise of our work is that the characteristics of the real environment can be replicated in a virtual world through digital twins, wherein new, configurable, innovative, and valuable ways of working and learning collaboratively can be created using avatar models. To do so, we present a proposal for the development of an experimental framework that constitutes a crucial first step in the process of formalizing collaboration in virtual environments through VR-powered metaverses. The VR system includes functional components, object-oriented configurations, advanced core, interfaces, and an online multi-user system. We present the study of the first application case of the framework with VR in a metaverse, focused on the smart factory, that shows the most relevant technologies of Industry 4.0. Functionality tests were carried out and evaluated with users through usability metrics that showed the satisfactory results of its potential educational and commercial use. Finally, the experimental results show that a commercial software framework for VR games can accelerate the development of experiments in the metaverse to connect users from different parts of the world in real time.

When Internet of Things Meets Metaverse: Convergence of Physical and Cyber Worlds

“…The Metaverse is a sustainable, widely covered virtual world, and user access to the Metaverse is not limited by location or time [117]. Anywhere has two main meanings, a) Anywhere in the Metaverse: The Metaverse can model any scenario and guarantee that the participants successfully access the location or scenario they want to visit; b) The participants accessing the Metaverse are not limited by the location: The Metaverse is decentralized, and each participant can access the Metaverse from anywhere with a simple device.…”

Integration of IoT and blockchain for decentralized management and ownership in the metaverse

“…The journey to realizing an authentic, multiuser metaverse is fraught with a multitude of challenges. 41 A paramount concern is the technical difficulty in simulating a highly immersive and realistic virtual environment that mirrors the complex nuances of the physical world. A successful endeavor in this direction requires breakthroughs in graphical and haptic technologies, combined with the capability to seamlessly integrate real-time physical world data into the virtual milieu.…”

“…The journey to realizing an authentic, multiuser metaverse is fraught with a multitude of challenges 41 . A paramount concern is the technical difficulty in simulating a highly immersive and realistic virtual environment that mirrors the complex nuances of the physical world.…”

Applications of MXenes in human-like sensors and actuators

“…Therefore, intelligent sensors and actuators will boost the actuate machine vision [320] and speed of sensing tiny objects and elevate actuation performances [321] with delicate displacement and small forces. Future service robotics may mimic human perception [322] and respond more vividly. Third, humanmachine interfaces arouse next-generation consumer electronics.…”