TECHNICAL STAFF TRAINING IN ULTRASONIC NON-DESTRUCTIVE TESTING USING VIRTUAL REALITY

Abstract

The training process in ultrasonic testing (UT) techniques is usually developed in highly specialized environments, which are not easy to access. The complexity of the application of the data collection protocol in the UT and the interpretation of the results, makes the development of new training methods suitable. Thus, a systematic design methodology is presented in this paper, which is based on digital animation techniques and videogame design (virtual reality). The aim of this proposal is to reinforce the training of non-destructive testing (NDT) technicians, while at the same time the cost are reduced and the efficiency of training process is increased. The proposed design allows the generation of ad-hoc environments for different training purposes in NDT. This way, the whole strategy is presented in this paper, as well as the method applied for generating a UT virtual laboratory of low computational cost that allows user a total interaction. In addition, this virtual laboratory involves a hybridization with the purely theoretical contents of training and presents the possibility of being implemented in in e-learning platforms. Key words: Non-Destructive Testing (NDT), Ultrasonic testing (UT), Virtual Reality, Systematic Design, Virtual Laboratories.