Starting Point
Challenge
Refrigeration, air conditioning, and heat pump technology is a "hidden champion": no refrigerator, no supermarket, no data center runs without cooling — and this industry is urgently needed to install and maintain the many millions of heat pumps to come. Yet it has a massive problem finding new talent, and currently and in the long term needs at least three times more skilled workers than are available today.
Our Approach
Solution
Immersive Multiplayer Learning Environment
To make initial, continuing, and further education modern and practice-oriented, the project is developing an interactive and immersive virtual multiplayer learning environment. Within this environment, selected learning content on refrigeration and heat pump technology is provided as virtual and augmented reality applications, allowing complex technical systems to be represented digitally in a realistic virtual environment.
Location- and Time-Independent, Across Many Devices
VR/AR headsets as well as smartphones and tablets are supported as end devices, giving as many people as possible access to the learning environment. The application is developed as a web- and cloud-based multiplayer solution, making it usable independent of location and time. This ensures low-threshold, easily understandable, yet technically precise knowledge transfer.
Learning Programs with Progress Tracking
The virtual learning content includes programs covering fundamentals, planning, assembly, installation, commissioning, as well as maintenance and repair of refrigeration and heat pump systems. Tracking functions capture users' interactions with 3D graphic objects and program functions. The collected data is analyzed to assess individual learning progress and suggest personalized content for targeted support.
Sustainably Expandable
The virtual multiplayer platform is designed so that it can easily be extended with further teaching content even after the project ends, ensuring sustainable and continuous use.
Target Audience & Transfer
Who We're Developing For
Target Audience
The focus is on trainees in the refrigeration, air conditioning, and heat pump industry (e.g. refrigeration system engineers, mechatronics technicians for refrigeration technology), technicians, and engineers specializing in refrigeration, air conditioning, and heat pumps.
Contact & Transfer Office
A contact and transfer office will support the use of VR/AR techniques in teaching and training for refrigeration and heat pump technology, ensuring low-threshold access for interested companies and institutions.
Transfer & Roll-out
To ensure the virtual learning environment is adopted sustainably and widely across the industry, the project — with intensive involvement of network partners — is developing a roll-out concept, including an operator and cost model as well as an IT concept.
Use Case
Virtual Leak Detection
Realistic Training
Trainees first check the boundary conditions and identify the refrigerant and required test method. They then precisely locate and mark several leaks on a virtual refrigeration system.
Digital Twin of the Real System
The virtual system is modeled exactly on the physical refrigeration system trainees use on-site and are tested on — for a high recognition value and direct transferability of what they've learned.
Direct Feedback
After each run, learners receive a structured evaluation of their performance in the simulation.