Virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR) is taking over the world, slowly dominating industries with attractive promises of modernising, streamlining and generally making work flows in a variety of industries more productive than ever. Next we have the Raymond Corporation taking on the technology to assist in the development of new and existing forklift operators.
The new VR Simulator allows users to enter a simulated warehouse environment and ultilise an exisitng, real forklift truck to sit in and interact with as they navigate the virtual warehouse. Simply, it’s a way to avoid risky first lessons with inexperienced forklift drivers who may accidentally crash into shelving or damage stock.
We’ve previously seen multi-user VR medical training at the recent CES 2018, Las Vegas.
The best part is that the forklift doesn’t have to be decommissioned in order to be used as a simulator; once the sPort is disconnected in can be put straight back into regular operation.
Using VR to train new users in a variety of tasks is no new thing, but more industries taking on and modernising their methods with VR is a wonderful thing.
The simulator comes pre-loaded with a varriety of forklift lesson modules for manoeuvres, movement and pick ups. Each lesson will increase in complexity until the user is, hopefully, a fully capable forklift driver.
The simulator even provides feedback on what could be improved upon through in-game statistics and reports for each user.
“Raymond consistently strives to enable customers to be as productive and efficient as possible. By providing an enhanced simulator experience that allows the user to operate within a fully immersive virtual experience, the operator can have an extra layer of confidence before entering the actual warehouse floor,” said Dave Norton, vice president of corporate quality and customer care at Raymond. “With the Raymond Virtual Reality Simulator, our goal is to educate operators in a stable environment and provide a baseline to evaluate them in the future.”
Of course this also allows the company to screen potential future forklift drivers whom claim to have experience, as well as sharpen the skills of their existing workforce.
It sounds almost like gamification of training and learning, and that can only be a good thing which is sure to get workers a bit more enthusiastic about learning.
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