A VR-based interactive teaching and practice environment for supporting the whole process of mining engineering education

ABSTRACT Due to the complex and dangerous nature of underground industrial sites, there is an urgent need to improve practical teaching abilities. In this paper, a VR-based interactive teaching and practice environment is proposed for teaching mining equipment processes under laboratory conditions. This environment integrates a digitised design, a virtual simulation platform, and a VR interactive product operation. This VR interactive environment includes the structural cognition of mining equipment, the actual operating conditions, and the actual operation of electronic control. Moreover, this system integrates a series of virtual reality human–machine interaction hardware, so that the students can quickly learn the operating conditions and the states of the actual underground production. This system helps them comprehensively learn the mechanical, electrical, communication, control, and mining methods involved in the mining equipment. Finally, this system provides a virtual practice path for training innovative engineering technicians.