A VIRTUAL REALITY SIMULATOR FOR TRAINING ELECTRICIANS TO WORK ON ELECTRIC POWER DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

Abstract

Immersive virtual reality simulators have been adopted in formal education and corporate trainings as they can represent real world scenarios, conditions and events that have inherent risks and/or that are not easily reproducible on classrooms or laboratories. One of the areas that can use these simulators is the electric power distribution network. Especially in Brazil, electricians take formal trainings to work on the electric power distribution network but usually do not experience the real conditions of the network and the several risks involved with it during these trainings. Consequently, even after taking the whole trainings, the electricians may not be well prepared to work on the emergency services or even on some of the scheduled maintenance services of the network, taking longer than expected to conclude these services. Therefore, this paper presents the development of an immersive virtual reality simulator for training electricians to work on the distribution network, considering the safety procedures, the proper usage of equipment and the collaboration with other electricians. By practicing in the proposed simulator, it is expected to improve the trainings and to expand the knowledge and the skills of the electricians.