Open Collections

Plavšić, Jovana

University of British Columbia

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, prolonged employee exposure to polluted and hazardous working environments, and frequent travel to remote mining areas increased the need to radically reinterpret mining working practices. Currently, the majority of operations in mining, which is a location-dependent, outdoor-based, and labor-intensive industry, do not have the potential for remote or hybrid forms of work. Digital twins (DTs), virtual replicas of physical assets, systems, or processes that enable bi-directional communication between the two counterparts, have been increasingly used in this context. Virtual reality (VR), a three-dimensional (3D) virtual space experienced through a medium, is commonly used for visualizing DT data. However, these technologies are still emerging, and their convergence has not been sufficiently explored. This dissertation presents a VR-based DT platform for facilitating mining operations from a remote location. First, the architecture for VR-based DT development is presented, including the developmental stages, activities, and stakeholders involved. A case study on the condition monitoring of a conveyor belt using real-time synthetic vibration sensor data was conducted using the proposed methodology and commercially available software and tools. The study demonstrated the application of the methodology and technical realization in the context of remote monitoring and identified the areas for further development prior to implementation in active mining operations. The research focused on the virtual portion of the DT and presented the limitations of real-time visualization. To ensure that the devised system can be further expanded in scale and scope, four prevalent VR optimization techniques were evaluated. The comparative analysis of optimization strategies stress-tested the designed platform and provided empirical evidence on the effects of optimization strategies on VR application performance. The findings of this research will primarily benefit the researchers and professionals working in the field of VR-based DTs. The presented methodology and platform can be used for applications beyond the provided case study and the mining industry. Additionally, a novel application area for VR in mining was provided. Professionals working in the domain of real-time 3D visualization and immersive experiences can adopt the findings of the performance analysis to ensure usability and mitigate the risks of cybersickness.

Text

2024-07-25

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/88702

Mining Engineering

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/